PRESIDENT Duterte has also asked Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairman Patricia B. Licuanan not to attend Cabinet meetings anymore, fueling speculations that he is also asking for her resignation.
Licuanan issued a statement on Monday revealing that Cabinet Secretary Leoncio B. Evasco Jr. also sent her a text message relaying Duterte’s instructions to stop her from attending Cabinet meetings.
“On Sunday, December 4, 2016, I received a text message from Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr. relaying President Rodrigo Duterte’s instructions to stop attending Cabinet meetings starting this Monday, December 5, 2016,” Licuanan’s statement said.
However, Licuanan does not see the ban on her attendance in Cabinet meetings as a veiled message for her to resign her post.
During the weekend, Vice President Maria Leonor G. Robredo resigned as chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) after receiving a similar message to tell her not to attend Cabinet meetings.
Licuanan said she would continue her work at the CHED, despite the apparent lack of confidence by the Chief Executive in her performance.
“I assured Secretary Evasco that I would comply. In the meantime, I will continue my work as chairman of the Commission on Higher Education,” Licuanan’s statement said.
Licuanan was reappointed by former President Benigno S. Aquino III to another four-year term in 2014.
Gothic treatment
ROBREDO, meanwhile, slammed the gothic treatment she has been getting from Duterte as she quit as HUDCC chairman.
Robredo had earlier bewailed the unprecedented P19-billion cut in the budget of the housing sector while the appropriations for Duterte’s pals who occupy Cabinet positions were increased.
While Robredo fumed at the lack of urbanidad or breeding by Evasco, Bong Go and Duterte, the urban-poor group Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay) said “Robredo’s brief tenure as HUDCC chief focused on the continuation of the probusiness trends made more prominent during the Aquino administration.”
Robredo’s sudden resignation also rekindled reports about the HUDCC post being offered to defeated vice-presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who lost to Robredo by 263,473 votes.
Marcos had accused Robredo and the Noynoy Aquino administration of cheating in the May 9 election, the first time in the country’s history that a losing Marcos heir has accused anyone of election fraud.
As early as August 2016, reports about Duterte offering the HUDCC post next year to Marcos swirled but the heir and namesake of the dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos reportedly did not want the assignment.
With Marvyn N. Benaning
2 comments
The bytch should just resign! Absolutely shameless. What exactly has she done at CHED for the last 6 years?
Manhid talaga si Licuanan…kapit tuko…wala na bang trabaho??!!!