OCHOA SEES NO POWER STRUGGLE WITH MAR ROXAS II'S ENTRY
MANILA, JUNE 2, 2011 (STAR) By Aurea Calica - Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. yesterday brushed aside talks that former Sen. Manuel Roxas II's entry in Malacañang could lead to a power struggle between the two of them.
Ochoa disclosed that he was the one working on the administrative order defining Roxas' job.
"We're still discussing the details of his official functions and probably that will be the time to really decide on his official title. Because that portion is a bit tricky," Ochoa said.
"We're being careful and we're exercising enough circumspection to really deal with it in a more appropriate manner, so rest assured that this will be resolved," Ochoa told reporters after sending off President Aquino, who left for a state visit to Brunei Darussalam, at Villamor Airbase in Pasay City.
"This is quite simple, there's nothing complicated about it. It's been done before, as you know, so we don't see any problem coming out of this. It's only the timing. I don't know because there are other considerations that we have yet to discuss," he said.
Ochoa said the "power struggle" or factionalism was "a very misleading notion or impression that has been going around all over media" and there was no truth to it.
"There's no such thing as a power struggle. There's only one power here. It belongs to the President. So everything emanates from the President and the President's power emanates from the people," Ochoa said.
"What we have is what the President feels that we should attend to under his authority as President," Ochoa said.
Asked why it was taking quite sometime to come out with the AO, Ochoa said they were just being careful to avoid overlapping of functions.
Ochoa noted there would be a lot going for Roxas given his qualifications.
"You know what Senator Mar is, his expertise on economic policies, on economic matters and, of course, he is a politician and he is the highest official in the party of the President, the Liberal Party, so there may be a lot of things there that he can advise the President on," Ochoa said.
Ochoa said there were no issues between him and Roxas "except that we have to really be careful in the delineation of functions."
"You've been talking about complications, you're talking about if it will work. There are doubts about it. So what I'm trying to say now is that there's really nothing to worry about because the functions can easily be defined," Ochoa said.
But he said the AO was still a work in progress and "we have to be exact on the things that will be assigned to him."
"As far as the positions that exist now like my position, the PMS (Presidential Management Staff) position and all the other positions inside OP (Office of the President), these are all defined by law so therefore the position that we will create, we should also reckon with the functions as mandated by law," Ochoa said.
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Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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