PALACE CONFIRMS PING, KIKO JOINING NOY CABINET /
LACIERDA: GMA SHOULD BE IN JAIL
MANILA, JUNE
8, 2012 (ABS-CBN) By David
Dizon, ABS-CBNnews.com -Malacañang confirmed Thursday that Senators Panfilo
Lacson and Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan will be joining President Aquino's Cabinet.
Asked on ANC if the appointments are already sure, Presidential Spokesman
Edwin Lacierda nodded and said: "They have been very supportive of the bills of
the President sa Senado so we certainly welcome them."
He also said the Palace knows that the 2 senators will be ending their terms
in the Senate by next year.
"We certainly knew that Senators Pangilinan and Lacson will end their term in
2013. Are there any positions that are going to be offered to them? The
President is keeping it close to his chest," he told reporters.
Lacierda said he has yet to speak to the President about which positions the
2 senators will take over after their terms expire next year.
Asked if Pangilinan will be appointed as agriculture secretary vice
Proceso Alcala, he said: "Hindi pa napag-uusapan yun."
He refused to say if Lacson will be appointed Department of the Interior and
Local Government Secretary but confirmed that DILG chief Jesse Robredo has not
been confirmed yet.
"I will not divine the thoughts of the President until he has spoken. We have
not discussed that yet, actually," he said.
Meanwhile, Pangilinan thanked the President for the vote of confidence for
choosing him to be part of the Cabinet in 2013.
"I am thankful for the vote of confidence expressed by PNoy and I leave it to
the President to decide where he believes I can be of help in his
administration's reform agenda," he said.
FROM THE INQUIRER
Arroyo should be in jail – Palace aide Agence
France-Presse 1:45 pm | Thursday, June 7th, 2012
[PHOTO -Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO]
MANILA – Former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria
Macapagal-Arroyo should be in a jail cell rather than a hospital room while
awaiting trial for alleged vote-rigging and corruption, a Palace spokesman said
on Thursday.
President Benigno Aquino's spokesman Edwin Lacierda questioned if Arroyo was
really so ill that she should remain in the relative comfort of a military
hospital, where she has been confined for six months.
"If everything is well with her, she should be placed in a cell. Hospital
arrest should not be used as a basis to feign illness," Lacierda told ABS-CBN
television.
Arroyo, who stepped down in 2010 after nearly a decade in office, was
arrested late last year and charged with allegedly rigging the 2007 senatorial
elections.
She was later charged with corruption over a cancelled deal with a Chinese
firm to set up a national Internet broadband network.
The separate trials are yet to start, and the proceedings could drag on for
years.
A court has denied Arroyo, 65, bail but allowed her to stay in hospital so
that she could be treated for a rare spinal disease. Lacierda called Thursday
for doctors to reassess her condition.
Aquino, who won a landslide election victory in 2010 on an anti-graft
platform, has vowed to pursue Arroyo and her allies for alleged massive
corruption during her years in power.
Arroyo has denied any wrongdoing.
On Wednesday, the government ombudsman filed corruption charges against
Arroyo's husband, lawyer Jose Miguel Arroyo, for allegedly selling two used
helicopters to the national police as new aircraft in 2009.
Two weeks ago, the Philippine Senate, dominated by pro-Aquino figures,
removed a key Arroyo ally, Supreme Court chief justice Renato Corona from his
post after finding him guilty of hiding millions of dollars.
FROM THE TRIBUNE
Ping hounding me — Mike A 06/08/2012
Former First Gentleman Jose Miguel "Mike" Arroyo (photo)
yesterday accused his arch critic, Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson, of pressuring the
Office of the Ombudsman to file cases against him in connection with the alleged
anomalous helicopter sale to the Philippine National Police (PNP) in 2009.
In a text message, Arroyo said his camp knew it was Lacson who had been
exerting extra effort to have him indicted.
"We are aware of the pressure exerted by a politician who is acting like a
conquistador. His inquisitorial tendencies are typical of his old ways as
martial-law enforcer against activists," Arroyo said, referring to the senator.
"From a dramatic and scripted Senate investigation to the filing of the
Ombudsman, nothing else is new," he added.
Last Wednesday, the Ombudsman filed graft charges against Arroyo in
connection with the allegedly anomalous acquisition of two pre-owned helicopters
passed off as brand new in 2009 for the PNP.
Aside from Arroyo, also charged were former PNP chief Jesus Verzosa, Manila
Aerospace Products Trading Corp. (Maptra) president Hilario Bautista de Vera,
Chief Supt. Luizo Cristobal Ticman, police directors Ronald Dulay Roderos, Romeo
Hilomen, Leocaldio Santiago Jr., former police deputy director general Jefferson
Sellano, Chief Supt. Gerold Tugade, Supt. Ermilando Villafuerte, Supt. Roman
Loreto, director George Piano, Sr. Supt. Luis Salagumba, Supt. Jog Antonio,
Supt. Edgar Fajatin and Supt. Mansueto Lucban.
Arroyo and his co-respondents were charged over the PNP's irregular purchase
of two units of Robinson R-44 Raven helicopter and a unit of Robinson Raven-2
helicopter that cost the government some P104 million.
But Arroyo said documents from the Civil Aviation Authority of the
Philippines (CAAP) had already established that LionAir was the owner and
exclusive distributor of the choppers and its marketing arm, Maptra, which sold
the aircraft to the PNP and insisted that he had no hand in the transaction.
"It is clear from the documents from CAAP that from the start, LionAir is the
owner and exclusive distributor of the helicopters in the country and it was
Maptra, the marketing agent which sold the helicopters to the PNP," Arroyo
stressed.
"And yet, they gave credence to the bare testimony of an individual over the
overwhelming documentary evidence showing I am not the owner," he noted.
Chief News Editor: Sol
Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE
NEWS ONLINE
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