MALACAÑANG said on Wednesday, April 4, it has not yet received any resignation letter from either Justice Secretary Vitaliano N. Aguirre II or Labor Secretary Silvestre H. Bello III amidst speculation Tuesday of their resigning.
Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra said on Wednesday’s press briefing the “Office of the President has not received letters of resignation” from Messrs. Aguirre and Bello.
He added: “The President has just returned from his Holy Week visit to his hometown, and he has not given any statement regarding this matter.”
Mr. Guevarra likewise confirmed the two officials were invited to attend Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting.
“Of course, they have been invited to attend the Cabinet Meeting this afternoon,” he said.
Asked whether there is an impending Cabinet revamp, Mr. Guevarra said: “We are not aware.”
‘DEBACLES’
As for Mr. Aguirre’s performance, Mr. Guevarra said the President “has been generally satisfied” with him as justice secretary.
“But well, except for certain debacles that happened to the DoJ recently. The President did not hide his displeasure about certain developments pertaining to the war on drugs, more specifically the dismissal of charges against certain high profile suspects,” he added.
Also, according to the Palace official, his office received information on Tuesday, April 3, that Mr. Aguirre was “hospitalized due to an illness but did not specify what it was.”
On Wednesday, opposition Senator Francis N. Pangilinan issued a statement saying:
“From one blunder to the next, Secretary Aguirre, wittingly or unwittingly, has been showing how unfit he is for the position.”
“From being linked to the P50-million bribery scandal involving resigned Immigration officials who are his fraternity brothers, to spreading false information against lawmakers over the Marawi siege, to downgrading the murder charges against Supt. Marvin Marcos to homicide despite Senate and NBI findings, to clearing Nick Faeldon and several Customs officials in the P6.4-billion shabu smuggling case, to the continuing drug trade in the National Bilibid under his watch, and to dismissing the drug charges against Kerwin Espinosa and Peter Lim — the list of his inadvertence is long and serious.”
“One might wonder how credible the charges he filed against Senator Leila de Lima were. In one development after another, the charges are now being bared to be false and baseless.” — Arjay L. Balinbin

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