Pia Cayetano to NHCP head: Defend Rizal Monument or resign

Senator Pia Cayetano. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

Senator Pia Cayetano wants the head of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) to resign if she cannot defend the Rizal Monument in Manila.

“Chair (Maria Serena) Diokno, resign if you cannot defend the Rizal Monument!” Cayetano, head of the Senate committee on education, arts and culture, said in a statement on Monday.

As head of the education committee, Cayetano spearheaded the Senate investigation on the construction of the controversial Torre de Manila, a 49-storey condominium, which is said to be obstructing the view of the Rizal Monument.

“Those occupying the top level positions of the government’s cultural agencies must be willing and able to defend national historic sites. If one cannot find it in themselves to undertake the legal and moral responsibility to do the same, then that person must resign,” the senator said.

Cayetano said she found it “extremely strange” that the NCPH was insisting that it could not defend the Rizal Monument “when there are many of us, including the Solicitor General, the defender of the Constitution, who believe that we must and we can protect the Rizal Monument under the Constitution and existing laws.”

“If the chair of NHCP cannot get on board with this, as she has blatantly displayed, then she must resign instead of hiring private counsel to defend her inability to perform her job,” she further said. Maila Ager

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