Photo taken from Rosalina Bistoyong’s Facebook account.
DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Malacañang has named Department of Agrarian Reform Undersecretary Rosalina L. Bistoyong as the Officer-in-Charge, following the rejection of former Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano by the Commission on Appointments last week.
In a press briefing on Monday, September 11, Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella said the order to appoint Bistoyong as DAR OIC took effect on September 8.
“OIC Bistoyong’s designation will ensure the continuous delivery of public service,” Abella said.
Bistoyong served as DAR undersecretary since 2010.
The CA rejected Mariano on September 5. He was the last Cabinet member nominated by the National Democratic Front in Duterte’s cabinet. He was also the fourth Cabinet member rejected by the CA.
The Communist Party of the Philippines condemned Mariano’s rejection calling it a “purging” of the left by President Rodrigo Duterte.
The New People’s Army said Duterte “has now completely cleared his cabinet of progressives that strive to give genuine change to the people and has completely turned his back on the calls of the oppressed and impoverished peasants.”
“At the beginning of the regime, the reactionary government appointed Mariano “as part of Duterte’s facade of being a ‘left’ and ‘socialist’ president,” said Jaime Padilla, spokesperson of the Melito Glor Command of the NPA in Southern Tagalog.
He said Duterte now “wholly showed that his government is administered by oligarchs and bureaucrat capitalist to preserve their own interests.” (davaotoday.com)
