Pangilinan successor named

PRESIDENT Aquino has appointed a presidential adviser on food security to replace Francis Pangilinan who resigned  to run for the Senate.

Fredelita Guiza, Pangilinan’s deputy, will head the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Food Security and Agricultural Modernization. The position has Cabinet rank.

Apart from Pangilinan, four other Cabinet members have resigned to run for senator—Leila de Lima, Joel Villanueva, Francis Tolentino and Jericho Petilla.

Mr. Aquino has yet to name an executive director of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority  to replace Villanueva and a Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chair to fill the post vacated by Tolentino.

The President has appointed Benjamin Caguioa, the erstwhile chief presidential legal counsel, justice secretary replacing De Lima.

He has yet to appoint an assistant secretary for special concerns at the Department of the Interior and Local Government after Nariman Ambolodto was tapped by the Liberal Party for its senatorial slate.

De Lima, Villanueva and Petilla are running under the administration coalition.

Tolentino is seeking a Senate seat as an independent after he withdrew his nomination to the LP slate after an outcry over his reportedly bringing a risque dance act to the birthday party of an LP congressman. Nikko Dizon