PALACE Press Officer Claire Castro yesterday submitted her courtesy resignation to give Acting Communications Secretary Dave Gomez a free hand to choose and appoint people that he wants to work with or appoint in the Presidential Communications Office (PCO).
“Yes,” Castro said when asked if she had already submitted her courtesy resignation.
She initially said in a radio interview yesterday morning that she plans to submit her resignation within the day.
“Para po mabigyan di siya ng leeway para makapamili kung sino iyung mga taong pwede niyang isama. At syempre po mas maganda po talaga kung kilala niya iyung tao na makakapag-silbi sa taong bayan (This will give him the leeway to choose the people he wants to bring in. It would be better if he is familiar with the people who will serve the people),” Castro said.
Other PCO officials who already submitted their courtesy resignations are Assistant Secretaries Weng Otida and Joey Villarama.
Gomez, after his oath taking as Acting Secretary of the Presidential Communications Office, issued a memorandum asking all appointees at the PCO to file their unqualified courtesy resignations until July 18, subject to pertinent civil service laws, rules and regulations.
“Until any action is taken by the Undersigned on such courtesy resignations, all Undersecretaries, Assistant Secretaries and Directors of the PCO-Central Office and Heads and other Presidential Appointees of Attached Agencies shall continue to report for work and perform their usual duties and responsibilities, subject to any modification that the new leadership of PCO may deem proper to adopt in the meantime,” the memorandum read.
Gomez, in a message to the media, said the courtesy resignation is “just your standard transition practice while I do the performance audit.”
Castro said she is not aware of any specific complaints against her or any calls for her removal at PCO.
She said she has also not been advised to step back from her media briefings or to tone down her delivery or way of answering the media.
“I think all they expect of me is to deliver the truth. Whatever I know and hold to be true, that is what I will stand for,” Castro said.
