Palace denies Angara, Aguda headed out of Marcos cabinet

Malacañang denied Wednesday that Education Secretary Sonny Angara and Information and Communications Technology Secretary Henry Aguda are on their way out of the Marcos administration.

"Denied po dahil kahapon lamang po ay kasama namin sila sa (Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council) LEDAC meeting at nagbigay din po sila ng kanilang mga proyekto sa private meeting with the President. So, we denied," Palace Press Officer Undersecretary Atty. Claire Castro said in a briefing. 

(We deny this because they were with us at yesterday's LEDAC meeting. They also presented their projects in a private meeting with the President. So, we denied [the information about their departure].) 

Reports have mentioned that the two officials are supposedly at risk of losing their posts in the Marcos Cabinet. 

Angara has since dismissed suggestions that he should step down from his post after he was linked to the kickbacks derived from fund insertions during his time as chair of the Senate committee on finance.

He said the claims linking him to the fund controversy are baseless and unsupported by any evidence.

For his part, Aguda said he was clueless about the alleged P6.5-billion insertion made in the Department of Information and Communications Technology's (DICT) budget this year.

Castro said there is no update yet on whether there would be a Cabinet revamp any time soon. She also said that at present, the President is satisfied with the work of his Cabinet secretaries.

"Kuntento po ang ating Pangulo sa lahat ng kaniyang mga Cabinet secretaries at habang nanatili sila diyan, nandiyan pa rin po ang tiwala ng ating Pangulo sa kanila," Castro said. 

(The President is content with his Cabinet secretaries and as long as they stay there, the President continues to trust them.) — VDV, GMA Integrated News