Santiago to veto Roxas’s confirmation

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago has formally informed the powerful Commission on Appointments her plan to veto the confirmation of incoming Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II on Wednesday.

“Out of deference, I have to inform you that at the CA plenary session this Wednesday at 1:00 p.m., I intend to veto the confirmation of Sec. Manuel A. Roxas II,” Santiago said in her letter this Tuesday to Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III, chairman of the CA’s committee on interior and local government.

“I consider Sec. Roxas, against whom I have nothing personal, as more than qualified in honesty, competence and efficiency. However, I have announced that I shall oppose the confirmation of any Cabinet member whom I invited to the Rico Puno hearing held on September 14, 2012 but who all declined to appear,” she said.

“In so doing, I wish to stand by the principle of checks and balances between the executive and the legislative branches of government. This applies to all the cabinet members concerned,” Santiago added.

Aside from Roxas, other Cabinet members who did not appear in Santiago’s hearing last week were Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, Environment Secretary Ramon Paje and Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa .