Bello leads new Arroyo appointees

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has appointed Silvestre Bello III as presidential adviser for new government centers and Antonio Villar Jr. as presidential adviser for anti-smuggling, Malacañang announced Wednesday. Bello, justice secretary during the Ramos administration, replaced Rodolfo del Rosario who resigned to run for governor of Davao del Norte. Bello was also the chairman of the government peace panel that negotiated with the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front. He was later named as Philippine National Oil Company chairman of the board before being appointed as general manager and chief executive officer of the Philippine Reclamation Authority. Villar, meanwhile, resigned as assistant secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communications in 2006 following his disgust over the supposed corruption in the department. He was a multi-term mayor of the Sto. Tomas town in Pangasinan and the founder and chairman of the multisectoral group Biskeg ng Pangasinan. He would head the newly created Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group, which is comprised of representatives of the Philippine National Police, the Philippine Coast Guard, the National Food Authority, the Philippine Maritime Authority, the Philippine Ports Authority, the Philippine Navy, the Bureau of Food and Drugs, and the Bureau of Customs. The main function of PASG, which was created through Executive Order 623, includes apprehending, confiscating, investigating and prosecuting acts involving smuggling, unlawful importation and other similar violations, and providing measures that would curtail and expedite seizure proceedings. PASG could also conduct intelligence and counter-intelligence works on smuggling and other illegal importation, enlist assistance and recruit personnel of certain departments or agencies, secure and verify documents pertaining to the natures and particular of a commodity or goods subject to importation, inspect warehouses and seized commodities stored in it, and suppress and prevent other forms of economic frauds. The President, through the EO, directed the justice department to assign a special team of prosecutors to PASG to help evaluate evidence gathered, initiate and conduct preliminary investigations, and ensure the issuances of search warrants, warrants of seizure and detention and initiate the necessary criminal, administrative and civil actions. An initial P50-million budget, to be drawn either from the President’s Contingency Fund or government’s saving, has been allotted to PASG which shall be subject to periodic audit by the Commission on Audit. A regular allotment for PASG would be incorporated in the annual budget of the Office of the President in the succeeding years. The Anti-Smuggling Group is also required to submit periodic reports to President. Mrs Arroyo in the past had formed an anti-smuggling task force headed by then Interior Secretary Angelo Reyes, which was a revival of the anti-smuggling task force initially created by the Estrada administration. Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said aside from Bello and Villar, the President also appointed Marcelino Tugaoen Jr. as administrator of the National Irrigation Administration, Rolando Piñero as acting commissioner of the Professional Regulatory Commission and Arthur Ty, as a member of the APEC Business Advisory Council. Tugaoen was the former deputy administration of NIA who took over as officer in charge of the agency after then administrator Arturo Lomibao ran and later withdrew his candidacy for congressman of Pangasinan. Ty, the eldest son of Metrobank Foundation chairman George Ty, is the president of the Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company. Ermita also announced the renewed appointment of Marita Magpili-Jimenez as executive director of the Asian Development Bank and the appointments of Interior and Local Government assistant secretaries Clarito Mallillin and Oscar Valenzuela. Interior department personnel records showed that Valenzuela and Mallillin, the former interior director for financial management service, were appointed on March 28. Jimenez, who was Arroyo’s former appointments secretary, was first named to ADB in 2004. - GMANews.TV