Palace: No military junta in gov’t

Malacañang has slammed as “erroneous” the claim of former National Anti-Poverty Commission head Liza Maza that the appointment of former military officials in government translates to a military junta.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said  Maza “has a misplaced – if not distorted” view of the Cabinet composition.

In a Facebook post, Maza slammed President Rodrigo Duterte’s Executive Order No. 67, which transferred agencies under the Office of the Cabinet Secretary to the  Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), agencies headed by two former military officials.

Under the President’s latest EO, the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos, Philippine Commission on Women and the National Youth Commission was transferred to DILG while the National Anti-Poverty Commission, National Commission on Indigenous Peoples and the Presidential Commission on the Urban Poor was placed under DSWD.

READ: Duterte revamps Office of the Cabinet Secretary

Former Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief  (AFP) Eduardo Año heads the DILG while former Army chief Rolando Joselito Bautista is the new DSWD chief.

“The President’s intent in rationalizing the Executive Branch through Executive Order No. 67 is to promote greater efficiency, agency convergence and participatory governance in the delivery of essential public services to all the sectors of society, given that they are now transferred to line agencies,” Panelo said in a statement Thursday night.

The President’s move, said Panelo, was also “in line with the campaign promise of PRRD to make the bureaucracy more efficient and responsive to the needs of our people through rightsizing.”

“We find it unfortunate that a former member of the Duterte Cabinet and past National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) Lead Convenor, Ms. Liza Maza, has a misplaced – if not distorted – view of the reorganization and composition of the Cabinet,” he said.

“Her conclusion, therefore, that placing former military men in executive offices automatically translates to a military junta-led government is completely erroneous,” he added.

Aside from Maza, the President had appointed left-leaning personalities to his Cabinet which included former DSWD chief Judy Taguiwalo and former Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano.

The appointments, however, were not confirmed by the Commission on Appointments.

“The President’s inclusion of left-leaning personalities in the Cabinet is part of his sincere effort to end the communist insurgency by inviting them to put their talents to good use in serving the nation – instead of calling for the government’s ouster – and be agents for peace and unification,” Panelo said.

The Palace official also defended the President’s appointment of former military men in his Cabinet.