Arroyo appoints new DA chief

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo named Agricultural Undersecretary Bernardo Fondavilla as the new agriculture secretary following Secretary Arthur Yap’s Supreme Court-mandated (SC) resignation from his post, The Philippine Daily Inquirer reports.

Yap, who is running for representative of the third district of Bohol, is one of many officials running for elective posts that stepped down following a SC ruling and calls for their resignation.

The announcement was made after the President, accompanied by Yap, inspected irrigation facilities of the Casecnan irrigation project in Guimba, Nueva Ecija, reports the Manila Bulletin.

“Secretary Yap’s replacement, and we all know it, will be his undersecretary, Bernie Fondavilla. That will ensure that the policies (at the Department of Agriculture) would remain the same,” she said.

Fondavilla is the current chair of the reactivated El Nino Task Force, former executive director of the National Agriculture and Fishery Council (NAFC) and the Agriculture Competitive Enhancement Fund, and was named acting secretary when Yap went abroad last month.

Gov’t appointees told to resign

The Philippine Star reports that nearly all Cabinet officials seeking posts in the May polls submitted their resignations near the end of February, pending the President’s approval and ahead of an appeal on the SC ruling filed by Solicitor General Alberto Agra.

The ruling upheld that election laws – Section 66 of the Omnibus Election Code and second provision, third paragraph, section 13 of RA 9369 or the Poll Automation Law - mandated that any appointive official “shall be ipso facto (as a result) resigned upon their filing of the certificate of candidacy.”

However the case is “rather unusual:” since there is no directive involving implementation, the danger is that political rivals may file cases of electioneering against them unless they step down, said SC spokeman Jose Midas Marquez to The Philippine Star.

Other officials seeking seats in the House of Representatives in the May elections are Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita (Batangas, 1st), Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya (Camarines Sur), Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera (Quezon, 1st) and Presidential Management Staff Director Hermogenes Esperon, Jr (Pangasinan, 6th).

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Raul Gonzalez, meanwhile, is running for mayor of Iloilo City.

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