PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III should issue a “hold departure order” to department heads who want to resign early to prepare for their run in 2016, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said on Wednesday.
Recto said it would be better for Cabinet members who are planning to run for office to stay longer “so they will be able to defend their agency’s budget request for 2016 and report how they used the funds for the current year.”
A “changing of the guards in the Cabinet while Congress is in the middle of the budget season,” he said, might result in both poor defense of agency proposals and weak explanations on how the budget was utilized.”
“Pag bagong secretary na outsider ang haharap, baka nga-nga lang ang isasagot n’yan kapag tinanong kung ano na ang nangyari sa mga proyektong hiningan ng pondo,” Recto said in a statement.
“And if it’s a new appointee who will be defending a budget request in the billions of pesos, how can he give a satisfying explanation if he has barely warmed his seat?” he asked.
To ensure that agency plans in the last six months are ably defended by his men, the President should issue a hold departure order to department heads who want to resign early because they want enough time to prepare for their run, said the senator.
Recto said the presence of the incumbent Cabinet members is crucial in the budget hearings as they have to liquidate past disbursements and justify why Congress should replenish their funds or finance their new projects.
“Both require institutional memory,” he said, “So it would be better if the one who’s been on top of all of these for quite some time will be the one doing the explaining instead of someone who’s still on training wheels.”
He said the budget hearings in Congress provide the best venues for a Cabinet member to give his final report.
“That’s the best place to deliver your valedictory. Kasi hindi lang talkies, pero may kasamang statistics. Numero ang batayan. At may question-and-answer portion pa, kaya pwedeng i-verify,” he pointed out.
Recto said the “chatter” was that “a quarter” of the Cabinet might seek congressional or senatorial seats.
“Kaya kung i-rerelease man sila ng Pangulo, pwede ba yung tapos na ang budget hearings,” he said.
Traditionally, he said, the House and the Senate wrap up committee-level hearings before October. The last day of filing certificate of candidacies is on October 16, according to the May 2016 election calendar. A government official holding an appointive post is deemed resigned the moment he files his candidacy.
Besides, Recto also believes that a Cabinet member “with political ambition,” who stays on his post until the budget hearings are done, gains no advantage from his extended stay.
“A Cabinet position actually drags down the holder because his time and attention are drawn by his day job. It wreaks havoc to his plan to organize his campaign, given the distractions of his Cabinet duties,” he said, when asked if Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas should resign after he declared his presidential bid last week.
“While it is true that ‘one can run an office and run for office at the same time,’ in reality, it will be hard to multitask. Another myth is that work suffers when one is planning to run. On the contrary, that person is driven to perform better because all eyes are on him.”
“His performance in his current job gives him the incentive to work harder as a way of convincing the voters that he deserves a promotion, and what he does with his job is the calling card of his abilities or the lack of it,” he further said.
But if the replacement is a career official, then Recto said, “maybe there’s no problem because continuity of programs is ensured.”
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