THE Commission on Appointments yesterday approved the appointments of Gamaliel Cordoba as chairman of the Commission on Audit and Susan “Toots” Ople as secretary of the Department of Migrant Workers.
First to be confirmed after hours of grilling from members of the CA committee on constitutional commissions and offices was Cordoba, who will serve as COA chairman until February 2, 2029.
The panel started deliberations on Cordoba’s appointment last week but this was suspended due to lack of time as Senate deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros and Sagip party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta engaged in a heated argument over the closure of ABS-CBN network.
Before he was confirmed, Cordoba said COA, under his leadership, will resolve in two years’ time the more than 4,000 cases pending before the agency.
“We really have a backlog, that’s admitted. What I will do is ageing… ageing of cases so we can finish the backlog. Right now, COA has around 4,000 plus pending cases. That’s quite a lot, but rest assured we will finish them immediately,” Cordoba said.
He added the agency will resolve the more than 4,000 pending cases in about two years, and will provide the CA panel a report on resolved cases.
Hontiveros said the COA, under Cordoba, has a lot of time to resolve these cases since the former NTC chief will serve as the agency head until February 2029.
“Two years to resolve the case backlogs is good in the next seven years. These are also useful to us in Congress, especially during budget deliberations,” Hontiveros said.
Cordoba also said COA has yet to get a copy of the formal request letter from the Department of Justice that reports said asked the agency to conduct a special audit on the issues involving suspended Bureau of Corrections chief Gerald Bantag, including the joint venture agreement entered into with Agua Tierra Oro Mina Development Corp. to develop the 375-hectare New Bilibid Prison reservation.
The CA committee on labor, employment, social welfare, and migrant workers approved the appointment of Ople as DMW secretary.
Ople and the appointment of 13 other secretaries were earlier bypassed by the CA due to lack of time. They were reappointed by President Marcos Jr. to their respective posts.
Ople is the daughter of the late Secretary Blas Ople, the labor chief in the 70’s and early 80’s who later also served as foreign affairs secretary.
“Mr. Chairman, Your Honors, when my father — the late and former DFA Secretary Senate President Ka Blas Ople — died on December 14, 2013, I pledged to dedicate my life to helping our migrant workers. It was and continues to be my way of honoring him, of keeping him close to me, and remembering the legacy he worked hard for,” Ople said.
Her appointment was confirmed after no member of the panel objected.
Another CA panel tackled the appointment of Raphael Lotilla as energy secretary but the hearing was suspended, again, due to lack of time.
“On the motion of (assistant) majority leader (Sen. Joseph Victor ‘JV’ Ejercito), we suspend deliberations on the ad interim appointment of Raphael Lotilla, secretary, Department of Energy, to resume until further notice,” said Senate president pro tempore Loren Legarda.
Ejercito said there were members of the CA panel who wanted to question Lotilla, specifically on the opposition raised by former DOE Undersecretary Petronilo Ilagan, now the president of the National Association of Electricity Consumer for Reforms.
Lotilla is the second appointee of Marcos whose appointment has been deferred. The first was DSWD Secretary Erwin Tulfo, whose citizenship and conviction for four counts of libel were questioned by members of the CA panel.
