CA panel suspends confirmation of Housing chief Del Rosario for the third time

A panel of the Commission on Appointments (CA) on Wednesday suspended its deliberation on the appointment of Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development (DHSUD) Secretary Eduardo Del Rosario for the third time.

Davao Oriental Representative Joel Mayo Almario moved to suspend the hearing as he raised a concern on the voting procedure of the CA committee.

"As practiced, we vote in a caucus on the stand of the committee on the confirmation or rejection... Now, we have an unprecedented, unthought of scenario wherein we used to vote by secret balloting, now we're on Webex. We haven't thought of how voting will be done to protect the identity of those who will vote in favor or against," Almario said.

Senator Francis Tolentino, chairperson of the CA committee on Human Settlements and Urban Development, agreed to bring the matter to the plenary to come up with an appropriate voting procedure.

Del Rosario had appeared thrice before the CA panel this month and was grilled over the issues involving Marawi rehabilitation as well as the resettlement problem of Yolanda victims. 

Prior to Wednesday's hearing, the two previous ones had been suspended for lack of material time to accommodate all questions directed to Del Rosario.

Tolentino said the appointee will be facing the CA again probably after two weeks.

During the CA plenary which followed a few hours after the hearing, the rules had been successfully amended to allow nominal and by ballot voting "during caucus or by any other appropriate technological means." —KG, GMA News