15 day reply rule

Palace finds penalties on Cabinet execs ‘too harsh’


By Juliet Labog-Javellana - Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines -- Saying the penalty was too harsh for the offense of failing to respond to a letter, a Palace committee of peers has rejected the recommendation of the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission to suspend three Cabinet secretaries for graft.

Presidential Management Staff chief Cerge Remonde said Sunday the committee of peers, which he heads, recommended to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo that the Cabinet officials be issued warnings instead.

“There are no serious cases of graft, such as stealing the people’s money, against Cabinet officials, only a failure to answer communication within 15 days,” Remonde said on Radyo ng Bayan.

Remonde said the committee reviewed the cases against three Cabinet officials and found the PAGC’s recommended penalty “too harsh” for the “very simple offenses.”

Remonde declined to name the secretaries involved. “We need not put them to shame over the simple case. But we would like to remind our colleagues that there is a law requiring us to answer communications within 15 days.”

Remonde said one Cabinet secretary, for instance, was a most unlikely subject of a complaint because she was known to be efficient and well-liked in her sector.

He said this Cabinet official had explained that she asked an assistant secretary to respond to the letter but the latter got sick and no reply was sent within the prescribed period.

The committee of peers, which includes Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. and Commission on Higher Education chair Romulo Neri, was set up to review the PAGC’s recommendations against erring Cabinet officials.