MANILA, Philippines—They must go.
They have either overlapping functions or inconsistent with the Aquino administration’s projects.
President Aquino has abolished agencies tasked with overseeing former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s flagship development projects in Luzon.
While he has not abolished the EDSA People Power Commission, the President has cut the number of its members from 25 to just five. The Edsa commission promotes the ideals of the first People Power Revolution led by the President’s mother, President Cory Aquino in 1986.
In an executive order that he and Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa signed on Dec. 9, Aquino scrapped Arroyo’s Luzon Urban Beltway Super Region and the Office of the North Luzon Quadrangle Area.
Executive Order No. 18 also did away with Arroyo’s Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG), Mindanao Economic Development Council (MEDC), Minerals Development Council (MDC), Office of the Presidential Adviser on New Government Center, Bicol River Basin Watershed Management Project, Office of External Affairs, and the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Global Warming and Climate Change.
The order abolished the agencies for either being redundant or for being inconsistent with the programs of the Aquino administration.
Overlapping
The order said the offices on the beltway and the quadrangle area and the office of the adviser on new government center, “whose functions are to ensure implementation of priority projects of the past administration, (are) not necessarily congruent with the present dispensation.”
Aquino junked the PASG because the Bureau of Customs and other law enforcement agencies were already performing its functions against smuggling.
EO 18 indicated that the MEDC had become redundant because of the creation of the Mindanao Development Authority by virtue of Republic Act No. 9996.
It noted that the functions of the MDC and the Bicol River Basin Management Office could be undertaken by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and other offices under the executive branch.
The Office of External Affairs’ functions may “be managed by the DILG (Department of the Interior and Local Government) in ensuring the greater participation of the constituencies in the development and implementation of the administration’s program of the Government,” the order said.
The adviser on global warming and climate change is also redundant with the creation of the Climate Change Commission through Republic Act No. 9729 dated October 23, 2009.
“It is the policy of the government to enhance its institutional capacity to deliver public goods and services in a more economical, efficient, ethical, effective and accountable manner,” Mr. Aquino said in the executive order.
Benefits to personnel
The order said the personnel who may be affected by the abolition of the agencies shall be allowed to avail themselves of the benefits provided under applicable existing laws.
EO 18 said the winding up of operations of the agencies shall be completed not later than Dec. 31.
In Executive Order No. 17, signed by Aquino and Ochoa on Dec. 22, amended EO 82 of then President Joseph Estrada in 1999 to streamline the Edsa People Power Commission (EPPC).
EO 17 also appointed the executive secretary as the chair of the EPPC. The Estrada EO, enacted in 1999, only provided that “a Cabinet member designated by the President” shall chair the commission.
EO 17 provides for a private sector representative as vice chair and five members.
“(There) is need to rationalize the composition of the Edsa People Power Commission to facilitate a more efficient and streamlined preparation and organization of events and activities related to the propagation of the spirit of the 1986 Edsa People Power revolution,” Aquino said.
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