Peña: New Makati City officials highly qualified

Acting Makati Mayor Romulo “Kid” Peña on Monday justified his appointment of new leaders at the University of Makati (UMak) and Ospital ng Makati (OsMak) and other departments, saying their qualifications and integrity were needed for “better governance.”

The recent appointments of Dalisay Brawner as officer in charge of the government-run UMak and Dr. Danilo Anastacio as head of OsMak have been tagged by the camp of suspended Mayor Junjun Binay as a “purge of qualified city officials.” They also claimed that the changes were being initiated upon the orders of former Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado who had testified in the Senate several times about the alleged corrupt practices of Binay and his father, Vice President Jejomar Binay.

Peña, however, said that he was the one who made the appointments. “As the acting mayor, I have been empowered by the law to make personnel movements. I believe the appointment of these new officials would be beneficial to the city government, considering their qualifications and untarnished records as employees of the city government,” he explained.

Other agencies at city hall whose heads were replaced were the engineering, general services, accounting, human resource, health, information and community relations and law departments.–Maricar B. Brizuela