Palace defines Almendras’ duties

President Benigno Aquino III has given new Cabinet Secretary Rene Jose Almendras a powerful role in his administration—as implementor of its projects roadmap—without clipping the powers of Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr.

“If you look at everything the executive secretary is doing, it’s quite heavy. There are instructions given by the President on a day-to-day basis to his Cabinet that need to be monitored…Secretary Almendras will be that person,” said deputy presidential spokesperson Undersecretary Abigail Valte in a Malacañang briefing on Tuesday.

Mr. Aquino signed Executive Order No. 99 on Oct. 31 vesting Almendras with powers to implement his 16-point agenda and the Philippine Development Plan (PDP) up to June 2016 when he steps down from office.

The Cabinet secretary will hold office in Malacañang and report directly to the President.

Before flying to Laos on Sunday for the 9th Asia-Europe Meeting, Mr. Aquino swore in Almendras and Jericho Petilla, who replaced Almendras as secretary of energy.

Main job

Under the EO, the Cabinet secretary’s main job is to facilitate identification of priority areas and outcome-based targets in the President’s “social contract”—or 16-point agenda—and in the PDP through 2016. The PDP translates the administration’s medium-term priorities into specific programs and projects.

“The Cabinet secretary will be in charge of monitoring and making sure the projects under the roadmap are implemented on time,” said Valte.

Under the EO, his other functions are to:

Recommend to the President an annual detailed and measurable performance and projects roadmap to facilitate target outputs against priorities in coordination with various agencies;

Ensure the timely execution and monitor the impact of targets under the annual performance and projects roadmap and realign targets where needed;

Represent the President at meetings and other forums to expedite interagency action toward achievement of the performance and projects roadmap;

Provide timely and organized information to the Cabinet on issues and problems submitted for decision and action;

Perform other functions as may be necessary and incidental to the attainment of objectives or as may be assigned by the President.

On top of this, the Cabinet secretary also chairs the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) and oversees the Results-Based Performance Management System (RBPMS) across all agencies. The executive secretary, Ochoa, cochairs the task force.

Wide leeway

Almendras will also be a member of all the Cabinet clusters, the National Economic and Development Authority executive committee and other Neda committees.

While the President has given Almendras such wide leeway, he has not clipped the powers of Ochoa, according to Valte.

“Well, your executive secretary is still what we call the primus inter pares (first among equals),” she said. “Whatever the ES was doing before, it will stay.”

However, some functions of Presidential Management Staff (PMS) chief Julia Abad were transferred to Almendras, Valte said.

In essence, EO 99 reconstituted the Office of the Cabinet Secretariat of 1986 and renamed it the Office of the Cabinet Secretary, defining its powers and providing support staff.

To avoid confusion, the Presidential Communication Development and Strategic Planning Office (PCDSPO) released a matrix parsing the functions of the Cabinet secretary, the executive secretary and the PMS head.

Administrative

According to the matrix, the Cabinet secretary’s mandate has to do with policy—the integration and implementation of the administration’s programs.

The executive secretary’s mandate, on the other hand, is administrative in nature—to respond to the “specific needs and requirements” of the President.

The PMS head is directly responsible for providing staff assistance in the presidential exercise of overall management of the development process, the PCDSPO said.

House Minority Leader Rep. Danilo Suarez, meanwhile, considers Almendras’ appointment a “demotion.”

“It’s clearly a demotion considering he used to be the boss of a major department. But it’s a demotion in name only, he’s still close to the powers that be. In fact, he is much closer than before,” said Suarez in a phone interview.

But Suarez said he did not see Almendras’ entry to Malacañang as a threat to the “Little President,” Ochoa. With a report from Gil Cabacungan