Philippines: Leftist Minister in Duterte’s Cabinet Loses Confirmation Vote

Philippine lawmakers voted Wednesday to reject President Rodrigo Duterte’s choice for social welfare secretary, marking the third time that the powerful congressional Commission on Appointments has removed a member of his year-old cabinet.

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said the government was “saddened” by the rejection of Judy Taguiwalo, a member of the progressive left who was handpicked by Duterte to head the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

“She made an impact in the lives of many Filipinos,” Abella said, adding that Taguiwalo served with passion, professionalism and integrity.

“The president is now looking and studying for a possible replacement,” Abella said.

It was unclear why the commission voted against confirming Taguiwalo’s appointment as secretary, but political observers said this could have been tied to her perceived links to communist rebels, even though she had officially denied such allegations.

The commission comprises members of both houses of Congress.

The body had earlier removed Duterte’s crusading environment secretary, Gina Lopez, who bucked a powerful lobby by miners, who allegedly supported several of the commission’s voting members. The commission had also removed Perfecto Yasay, Duterte’s pick as secretary of foreign affairs, who was questioned for holding American citizenship in the past.

Taguiwalo’s rejection came after a two-hour hearing to determine her fate. She was earlier bypassed twice, and the third decision was final.

House of Representatives member Joel Almario, who read the decision, said it was no easy task to decide the fate of Taguiwalo, whose brief tenure as social welfare secretary was marked by a massive evacuation in the country’s south when Islamic State-linked militants took over the city of Marawi.

“I stand before this august chamber as your chairman on the committee on labor, employment, and social welfare, to move for the Commission on Appointments to reject the ad interim appointment of Judy Marigomen Taguiwalo as secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development,” he said.

Sen. Bam Aquino, a member of the commission, said losing Taguiwalo was “unfortunate” and noted that the confirmation proceedings was a numbers game.

He said colleagues had vouched for Taguiwalo’s “integrity and work ethic.”

Duterte would have to find a replacement who exhibits “a passion to address inequality in the Philippines to ensure the effectiveness of our poverty alleviation programs,” Aquino said.

Taguiwalo, a longtime activist and educator, was nominated to her post by the Communist Party of the Philippines, a rebel group that Duterte had tried to bring to the negotiating table in his first year in office.

Talks, however, have been suspended after the president was angered by the group’s continued attacks against government forces in the countryside.