Binay’s presence not required on ‘special Cabinet meeting’

Vice President Jejomar Binay (Facebook photo)

MANILA — Vice President Jejomar Binay’s presence was not required in the “special Cabinet meeting” set by the President on Thursday.

Malacañang on Thursday said that the meeting was not a regular one and therefore, does not require the presence of all the Cabinet members.

“As it is a special, not a regular, Cabinet meeting, not all Cabinet members were required to attend,” Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma said.

Coloma added that the meeting was set to review the first-semester performance of the government.

Those who were not required to attend includes Luwalhati Antonino of the Mindanao Development Authority, Joel Rocamora of the National Anti-Poverty Commission, Manuel Mamba of the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office, National Security Adviser Cesar Garcia, Yasmin Lao of the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos, Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda and Ronald Llamas of the Office of the Political Adviser.

In a separate statement also from the same PDI report, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said that the meeting also aimed at creating measures to ensure a higher economic growth in the next quarter.

This is following the drop in the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth to 5.2 percent from 6.6 GDP growth in the last quarter of 2014.