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PRESIDENT Arroyo has appointed former senator Ralph
Recto, the author of the administration’s vaunted
expanded value-added tax (E-VAT) law, as director
general of the National Economic and Development
Authority (Neda), Malacañang announced on Wednesday.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said in his weekly
news briefing that Recto, whose appointment papers were
signed on July 10 and forwarded to the Commission on
Appointments for confirmation, assumes his new job
Thursday, while Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary
Augusto Santos will continue to be Neda deputy director
general.
Ermita
sought to dispel the perception that Recto’s appointment
was a “consolation prize” for his failure to be
reelected under the administration’s Team Unity
senatorial ticket in 2007.
He
stressed that the President had based her appointment on
Recto’s qualifications and capability to be her new
socioeconomic planning secretary.
“My
golly, he’s qualified. He is the author of the VAT. And
he is an economist,” Ermita said.
Reacting
to his appointment, Recto said in a press statement that
“it will be a very challenging job, considering current
conditions [global credit crunch, high fuel, rice and
commodity prices], but I look forward to working with
the best and the brightest of government employees [at
Neda].”
“I also
look forward to sharing ideas with former Neda directors
general on a wide range of issues and, hopefully, work
out a consensus with the opposition on strategic
economic policies regarding economic threats and
opportunities,” he said.
Recto’s
appointment gathered mixed reactions from some
economists, former Neda directors general and staff
members.
Santos
called the appointment “a presidential prerogative.”
“I serve
at the pleasure of the President. I am a career
official, a Ceso [Career Executive Service Officer,] and
with his appointment, I shall go back to my former post
as deputy director general of Neda,” Santos said in a
statement.
He
added: “Neda has always been known for its
professionalism so I am confident that it will continue
to perform its mandate as the country’s premier
socioeconomic planning body to the best of its abilities
under a new head.”
An
economist who requested anonymity expressed shock and
disbelief at what seemed to be a brazen political act by
the President to appoint another partyman as head of one
of the main decision-making bodies in the government.
As Neda
director general, Recto will now be the President’s
right hand in making economic decisions for the country,
as well as approving big-ticket government projects
worth P500 million and above, in the ranks of the
$329-million national broadband network (NBN) project.
“That’s
[Recto’s appointment] the last nail on the coffin of
Neda,” the economist told the BusinessMirror in a phone
interview. The economist also feared that with Recto’s
appointment, the Neda would now be used as a “political
weapon” by the administration.
However,
Ramos-era Neda director general Cielito Habito said he
knows Recto personally and sees him as a hard worker and
someone fit to head the Neda.
“I
welcome his appointment. He will be a good director
general because he does his homework,” Habito said in a
phone interview.
Meanwhile, University of the Philippines economist
Solita Monsod, Neda director general during the term of
President Aquino, said a socioeconomic planning
secretary should be an economist.
While
Recto is not an economist he has a business
administration degree from De La Salle University, holds
Master’s degrees in Public Administration from the
University of the Philippines in Diliman and Strategic
Business Economics from the University of Asia and the
Pacific, and took a Leadership Scholarship Course at the
John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard
University in Boston.
He was a
three-term congressman representing the Fourth District
of Batangas before joining the Senate in 2001 until
2007.
Former
budget secretary Benjamin Diokno said what’s important
right now is whether the Neda staff will welcome his
appointment. Diokno said, however, that the staff should
give Recto the benefit of the doubt.
“I would
think that the position of Neda DG is reserved for an
economist. But this tradition has already been broken by
the President with her appointment of former Neda chief
Romulo Neri, who has a marketing and finance
background,” Diokno said. “But the staff should give him
the benefit of the doubt.”
Meanwhile, the Organization of Neda Employees (ONE) vice
president External Aladin Ancheta told the
BusinessMirror that in the recent discussion of ONE
executive committee, the common consensus on the matter
of Recto’s appointment as Neda chief is to give him a
chance to run the agency.
Ancheta
said the ONE cannot tell Recto outright that he is not
fit for the job at the moment, given that he has yet to
assume his position.
However,
Ancheta said the Neda employees will be more vigilant
and will not take things sitting down, particularly if
Recto’s administration of the Neda will result in
another “NBN-ZTE” issue.
Recto is
the third losing administration bet in the 2007
senatorial race to be appointed by the President after
the one-year appointment ban lapsed in May. The two
others were former senator Vicente Sotto III, who is now
Dangerous Drugs Board acting chairman, and former
presidential chief of staff Michael Defensor, head of
the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal III Task
Force. |
