Carandang's independence from former employer questioned

A senator on Thursday vowed to grill Ricky Carandang, an official of the Aquino administration’s Communications Group, when he faces members of the bicameral appointments body. Sen. Loren Legarda said Carandang will have to assure the Commission on Appointments (CA) that he will not favor his former employer, ABS-CBN, in any way in the future. Carandang was a broadcast journalist working for ABS-CBN’s cable news channel ANC prior to his appointment to the Communications Group. Legarda, herself a former broadcast journalist who worked for ABS-CBN, said she particularly wants to know if Carandang was already supporting President Benigno Aquino III and the Liberal Party while he was still with ANC. “You can’t be an anchor and journalist and PR-ing at the same time for a candidate," she said. Carandang, for his part, said he is ready to prove his independence to the CA. He also denied that he was part of the LP communications team when he was still with ANC. “I didn't even know if the LP had a communications team," Carandang, who will get a Cabinet rank in the Communications Group, told GMANews.TV in a phone interview. He also said he would not do any special favors for ABS-CBN. Carandang was rumored to have leaked an advance copy of Aquino’s first State of the Nation Address (SONA) to ANC, but he said the news channel must have sourced it from congressmen or Cabinet members who were given advance copies of the SONA. So far, no formal opposition yet to any of the presidential appointments have been submitted to the CA Office of the Secretary. The CA Databank and Library Service said the Palace has yet to send them any appointment papers. The CA is composed of the Senate president as its head, and 12 senators and 12 congressmen as its members. The commission is in charge of confirming all appointments made by the President of the Philippines, except those of the Ombudsman and Supreme Court Justices. The commission deliberates on nominations at the standing committee level and at plenary sessions. Nominations or appointments may end up being confirmed, rejected or by-passed. While ostensibly a body that reviews the qualifications of executive appointees, the CA in the past has been an arena for partisan combat and horsetrading, with confirmation withheld or granted depending on concessions from the executive branch. Sometimes appointees are bypassed by the CA so many times they decide to withdraw from the process and resign, a fate that befell the agrarian reform secretary appointed by then-President Corazon Aquino, the same man who will undergo the same gauntlet as President Noynoy Aquino's budget and management secretary, Florencio "Butch" Abad. - with Jam L. Sisante/KBK, HGS, GMANews.TV