{"id":52928,"date":"2015-06-24T16:54:14","date_gmt":"2015-06-24T08:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=52928"},"modified":"2015-06-24T16:54:14","modified_gmt":"2015-06-24T08:54:14","slug":"cabinet-members-eyeing-national-elections-should-resign-lawmakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/06\/24\/cabinet-members-eyeing-national-elections-should-resign-lawmakers\/","title":{"rendered":"Cabinet members eyeing national elections should resign \u2013 lawmakers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Senator<\/a>
Senator Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito at the Kapihan sa Senado (PRIB Photo by Cesar Tomambo\/June 2015)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA \u2013 Several lawmakers advised Cabinet members and executives who were eyeing elective positions in next year\u2019s national elections to resign so that they would not be given the wrong impression of using government resources for political aims.<\/p>\n

Vice President Jejomar \u201cJojo\u201d Binay was ahead, already resigning as head of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council and presidential adviser on overseas Filipino workers last Monday. Binay had earlier publicly expressed his interest in joining the presidential race in the coming elections.<\/p>\n

Senator JV Ejercito, one of the lawmakers who gave the advice, deemed it unfair for government officials to be seen as exploiting government funds for personal gains.<\/p>\n

\u201cOthers should follow Binay out of delicadeza…They may not be aware of it, but they\u2019re using government machinery and resources for their own personal gains,\u201d Ejercito said in a forum.<\/p>\n

Senator Aquilino Pimentel III, also one of those who advised, recommended that Cabinet officials resign early from their appointive positions. He stated that the longer the officials stayed in the administration, the more explaining they may have to do later on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more government projects you inaugurate, the more goodies you distribute, the more the charge that you used government resources,\u201d Pimentel said in a phone interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey should be able to confront the allegations or charges that they used resources,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Senator Vicente Sotto III and Kabataan Representative Terry Ridon\u2019s statements agreed with Pimentel. They noted that resigning as early as now would \u2018remove suspicion that public funds were being used to advance their political plans.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they want to avoid the public perception that they might be using their position or office to campaign, the earlier they resign, the better,\u201d Sotto said in a text message.<\/p>\n

Bayan Muna Representative Carlos Isagani Zarate, on the other hand, believed that President Benigno Aquino III should take the initiative to ask his Cabinet members with political ambitions for the coming elections to resign.<\/p>\n

\u201cDelicadeza dictates that they should resign if they want to run for higher office. It is very trapo (traditional politician) for these Cabinet members to use their positions and people\u2019s money to promote their names via media exposures, ad placements masquerading as tips,\u201d Zarate said.<\/p>\n

Malaca\u00f1ang, for their part, defended the Cabinet members and executives. They claimed that the officials were only doing their jobs, electoral ambitions aside.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA \u2013 Several lawmakers advised Cabinet members and executives who were eyeing elective positions in next year\u2019s national elections to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":52929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95,483],"tags":[249],"class_list":["post-52928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","category-politics","tag-rewrite","mauthors-cyra-moraleda","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}