It is up to incoming President Rodrigo Duterte to include communist leaders in his Cabinet but such appointment will have to go through the scrutiny of the Commission on Appointments, a Palace official said yesterday.
“Every President exercises the prerogative to appoint Cabinet members who are deemed capable and trustworthy,” Presidential Communications Operations Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said in a Palace press briefing.
“In exercising this power, the President must submit the appointees to the scrutiny of Congress through its Commission on Appointments, as provided by the Constitution,” Coloma added.
Duterte earlier offered four Cabinet positions to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) as a confidence-building measure to the peace talks.
The top government posts made available are the Departments of Agrarian Reform (DAR), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE), and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
Coloma said they would leave to the bicameral CA to review the Cabinet appointments to be made by the next administration.
“While reviewing such appointments, Congress may engage stakeholders in dialogues that would surface concerns or objections, such as those that have been aired in regard to the incoming President’s plan to appoint nominees from the Communist Party of the Philippines,” he said.
