Margarita Juico FILE PHOTO
NAYPYIDAW, Burma—Cabinet members do reach a saturation point, and some think of going back to the private sector, President Aquino said Sunday night.
Aquino was reacting to the resignation last Thursday of Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) Chair Margarita Juico.
“A lot of the people who work with me—either in the Office of the President or the Cabinet—are advocates and, in a sense, they are driven by their belief in the causes they’re espousing,” he told reporters here Sunday night.
The President said working in the Cabinet or for the government took a toll on one’s private life, not to mention one’s income, and made one a “magnet” for criticism.
“There is a point, I guess, everybody has a saturation point. And every time that they continue to serve our people, I thank them,” he said. “And there are points when you want to say: “Is there something else that I can do?”
Aquino cited the experience of former Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras, who consistently came under fire for fuel price increases.
The last straw, he said, was when Almendras’ daughter was bullied in grade school over her father’s alleged failure to address the fuel issue. Almendras quit and accepted the post of Cabinet secretary.
“So, will there be changes? Some have indicated that… they are saying that at a mutually agreed upon time, they would want to go back to their private endeavors,” he said.
“But at this point in time, nobody is yet being replaced,” he added.
Aquino recalled that Juico was reluctant to accept the post of PCSO chair and wanted only to sit in the board, but she eventually relented.
“So for her to have rendered service all this time is, I think, suffice to say ‘thank you,’” he said.
The President, however, declined to confirm reports his political ally, Erineo “Ayong” Maliksi, who lost the Cavite gubernatorial race last year, would replace Juico as PCSO chair. “Can we wait for the appointment? Sooner, and we will come to it as soon as possible?”
An independent bloc in the House of Representatives, however, cautioned Malacañang against treating the PCSO as one of the spoils of war and award its chairmanship to one of its allies.
Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez said appointing a defeated ally could affect the PCSO’s integrity and mandate.
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