Faces of the news

Edgardo Angara

Former Senate President Edgardo J. Angara will be laid to rest in his hometown of Baler, Aurora province, on Tuesday. The country’s special envoy to the European Union died last Sunday at 83, ending a storied career as an educator, politician, lawyer, farmer, diplomat and patron of the arts. Angara succumbed to a heart attack in his Tagaytay City home, according to his family. Sen. Franklin Drilon, one of the last few people who saw Angara, recalled the “very nice and pleasant” day he spent in the latter’s rest house. “I kidded him because he still had so many plans. I told him, ‘You know, Ed, you should live to 183 years, because you’re 83 now.’” Two former Presidents, Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, eulogized Angara during necrological services at the Senate, where Angara spent the “best years of his life.” Angara cofounded in 1972, the year the dictator Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial law, the Accra Law Offices, which became one of the country’s top law firms. Of the many hats he wore during his life, Angara treasured most that of being a grandfather, according to his son, Sen. Sonny Angara.

Cesar Montano

Actor-turned-politician Cesar Montano was in the spotlight again for not-so-good reasons. On her first day as secretary of the Department of Tourism, Bernadette Romulo-Puyat asked him, as the chief operating officer, to explain why the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) disbursed P80 million for the “Buhay Carinderia” project even if the project had not been completed. Montano washed his hands clean, saying he expressed reservations to former Tourism Secretary Wanda Tulfo-Teo, who actually approved the swift payments made between March and April to ad agency Marylindbert International. He said the company’s president and the creator of Buhay Carinderia, Erlinda Legaspi, was a “friend” of Teo’s. Puyat asked the Commission on Audit to review all “ongoing and pending projects” under the TPB. Montano’s new boss also asked him to explain why he cut his keynote speech in New York recently and rushed to the showing of the musicale “Hamilton.” During her meeting with Montano, Puyat said she believed he “may have acted in good faith”—or he’s just a “good actor.” Puyat did not ask for Montano’s resignation.

Bernadette Romulo-Puyat

Administration officials and the opposition hailed President Duterte’s appointment of Bernadette Romulo-Puyat as the new secretary of the Department of Tourism (DOT), replacing the resigned Wanda Tulfo-Teo. They said Puyat’s impeccable track record of more than a decade in government service would salvage the reputation of the corruption-mired DOT. She served under the administrations of former Presidents Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Benigno Aquino III. Prior to her DOT appointment, she served as an undersecretary in the Department of Agriculture. Among the President’s marching orders to Puyat was to get rid of corruption and she did that on her first week on the job. Aside from asking all of Teo’s assistant secretaries and undersecretaries to tender their courtesy resignation, she also asked the Commission on Audit to review all ongoing and pending projects in the DOT. All projects under her watch should be transparent and properly bid out, she said. Branding herself as a “very strict” boss, Puyat said she would “be very meticulous [in checking all DOT projects], even if I don’t get any sleep.”

Hilario Davide Jr.

Retired Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. said the eight justices who voted in favor of the quo warranto proceeding that ousted Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno could also face possible impeachment for culpable violation of the Constitution. Davide, who joined Sereno in a solidarity walk and Mass on the Ateneo de Manila University campus last week, said quo warranto was not an authorized mode for the removal of the Chief Justice. He also noted that the case was no longer within the prescribed period. Davide said he saw a conspiracy to oust Sereno, the country’s first female Chief Justice. He called the high court’s decision on May 11 the “saddest day of the Philippine judiciary.” He said the biases of some of the associate justices got in the way of the rule of law, and denied Sereno of due process. Asked to comment about Duterte’s preference for a female and nonpolitician Ombudsman to replace Conchita Carpio Morales, he said: “Our Constitution provides equality before the law between the women and men. We know that women come first. It’s not equality between men and women, but women and men.”

Anwar Ibrahim

Only days after he was released on May 16, Malaysian leader Anwar Ibrahim renewed ties with Singaporean Lee Hsien Loong in a private meeting in Kuala Lumpur over the weekend. The hourlong meeting was held on the sidelines of Lee’s visit because Anwar holds no position in the government. But 92-year-old Prime Minister Dr. Mohamad Mahathir has already declared that he would yield the premiership to Anwar in one to two years. Malaysians were generally elated at Anwar’s return to power after two terms in prison on trumped-up charges. But some were not as happy, particularly former Prime Minister Najib Razak, who suddenly found himself the subject of a corruption probe after his surprise loss to the alliance of Mahathir and Anwar. Anwar said on Friday that a “shattered” Najib called him on the night of election day, seeking advice in the face of his loss. Anwar, 70, declined to say how he thought Najib’s case would play out as it depended on “how he can defend himself in court.” But the former detainee said “It will be very difficult for [Najib] to escape prison.”