PRESIDENT Aquino is giving himself and Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo two more months to work on the compatibility of their working style.
In an ambush interview, Aquino confirmed a report by VERA Files Monday that the reason Robredo’s appointment is in acting capacity was due to differences which date back to the election campaign.
“There are various reasons kung bakit acting. In the case of Jesse, we had some differences during the campaign as to style. We want to make sure we can really work with each other well,” he said.
VERA Files reported that Robredo’s name, together with that of Environment Secretary Ramon Paje and Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, was not among those submitted to the Commission on Appointments for confirmation.
Aquino said, “ It does no good to get him (Robredo) through the whole process of the CA only at the end of the day to find out that there might be difficulties in our working style, among others, our core philosophy, so we did agree na acting na muna.”
He added: “May evaluation period, siguro check ang working style, after two months sigurado na tayo, we still have certain things discussed. Dadalawang buwan pa lang kami nagkakasubukan kung talaga nga bang kaya naming mag-mesh.”
Although Robredo holds the position of acting secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government, the Philippine National Police is not under his jurisidiction. Aquino has appointed his gun buddy, Rico E. Puno, DILG undersecretary for peace and order with jurisdiction over the PNP.
In the Aug. 23 hostage-taking debacle, Robredo, who is not member of the committee investigating it, said he was “out of the loop.” Aquino was getting his reports directly from Puno, who did not think of recommending the creation of a national crisis committee.
Aquino said he is thinking of making Baldoz appointment permanent and make her go through the CA.
As to Paje, who is holding the position while former Bukidnon representative Nereus Acosta is covered by the one-year ban for those who ran in the recent election, Aquino said, “We had two other people in mind who were not available in the DENR post so Secretary Paje is aware that one year is a significant amount of time, depending on performance, we might reevaluate the need to get somebody else.”