(Updated, 2:57 p.m.) The Commission on Appointments (CA) rejected on Wednesday Judy Taguiwalo’s confirmation as Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) secretary.
The members of the powerful Commission reached the decision in an executive session right after the two-hour hearing.
Davao Oriental Rep. Joel Almario, who read the decision, described the decision-making process a “painstaking” task.
“Our position, Mr. Chairman, my dear colleagues, is no easy task. And our role is sacred,” Almario said.
“I stand before this august chamber as your chairman on the committee on labor, employment, and social welfare, to move for the Commission on Appointments to reject the ad interim appointment of Judy Marigomen Taguiwalo as secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development,” he said.
Almario said 13 votes were reached to reject Taguiwalo’s appointment. He, however, did not disclose how the CA members voted.
Taguiwalo is expected to vacate her office immediately following her rejection by the body.
She is the third member of the Duterte Cabinet to be rejected by the CA.
The same body had rejected the appointments of then Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr., and Environment Secretary Regina “Gina” Lopez.
Taguiwalo was technically bypassed twice prior to facing the CA committee for the third time on Wednesday.
The new CA rules require the body to decide on the fate of a Cabinet member’s appointment if he or she was bypassed three times.
Taguiwalo, a long-time activist and professor, is one of the three Cabinet members nominated by the Communist Party of the Philippines. She, however, denied links to the group, which has been waging war in the countryside for almost 50 years. IDL