Mixed reviews greet
Recto appointment
‘Good man, bad administration’

BY JP LOPEZ

PRO-ADMINISTRATION Sen. Joker Arroyo yesterday said former senator Ralph Recto, his fellow member in the "Wednesday Group," is most qualified to head the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) and has the controversial expanded value-added tax (EVAT) law to show for it.

"He’s the author of the EVAT and he never regretted it. He wanted the position because he knows he can handle the job. Who has the appointing power is beside the point," Arroyo said.

Arroyo and Recto both ran under the Team Unity ticket of the administration in the 2007 senatorial elections but only the former made it.

He stressed Recto is well-versed on the highly technical position such as the NEDA, having handled the deliberations and approval of the EVAT in the upper chamber.

"For me, Ralph (Recto) is one of the few that can go to that position, being the former chair of the ways and means committee. The NEDA position is apt for him, one of the most difficult jobs in the government, highly technical," Arroyo said.

Arroyo also asked his fellow senators to spare Recto from the burden of producing the controversial NEDA-ICC documents related to the overpriced national broadband (NBN) deal won by a Chinese firm.

"He doesn’t know anything about the ZTE issue. He was not with the NEDA yet (when the issue broke out). Labas sya dyan sa ZTE issue," he said.

Sen. Francis Escudero said while he welcomed the appointment of Recto as NEDA chief, the new socio-planning chief should come clean by opening the NEDA records on the NBN with Chinese firm ZTE Corp.

The records concern the minutes of the meeting of the NEDA-investment coordinating committee’s held behind closed doors in September 2006.

The minutes supposedly contained information on how the botched NBN-ZTE project was transformed from the original concept of a build-operate-transfer to a government-to-government scheme or from being at no cost to the administration to that of a loaned project from the proponent.

This took place when NEDA was still under Romulo Neri, who was recently appointed president of the Social Security System.

The same NEDA documents alleged to have also carried damning evidence that could implicate some top officials from the Executive department.

Escudero practically sounded off to Recto the matter of dealing with the ZTE controversy when he takes office.

"I don’t want to raise our hopes here in the Senate but I hope we will be pleasantly surprised if and when he opens the records of NEDA, being a former member of this institution and I’m sure he understands where we’re coming from, why we’re insistent in getting these documents," Escudero told the weekly Kapihan sa Senado media forum.

He added: "While I wish him well and without taking anything away from him… the government is not an employment agency. We would have preferred a career person to be appointed."

Sen. Francis Pangilinan nevertheless expressed hope that Recto’s appointment would improve the relations between the executive department and the Senate.

Minority leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. reiterated his support to Recto, emphasizing, however, that his appointment is "a graphic case of a square peg in a round hole."

"Good man, bad administration," Pimentel said.

Sen. Benigno Aquino II, on the other hand, dared Recto not to follow the footsteps of Neri, who invoked executive privilege in refusing to divulge to the Senate the details of his conversation with President Arroyo regarding irregularities in the NBN project with China’s ZTE Corp.

Speaker Prospero Nograles also came to the defense of Recto, saying he is "highly qualified for the position and there is no doubt about his sterling record both as congressman and senator."

"While he paid a political price for sponsoring what was then perceived to be the unpopular VAT Law, this law saved our country from economic perdition and buoyed up the economy when we needed it most. Sen. Ralph Recto was correct and he bit the bullet like all of us who supported his VAT proposal," Nograles said.

The Speaker admitted that "the true test is qualification of the appointee and not closeness to the appointing power."

Mandaluyong Rep. Neptali Gonzales II, another former colleague of Recto, said he is the right man for the job "because he understands economic issues."

Malacañang said there is no better person to advise President Arroyo on what to do with the VAT other than Recto, author of the expanded VAT law.

Recto’s authorship of the EVAT law, which Arroyo proudly announced during the administration’s campaign trail in the 2007 senatorial elections, was seen as the reason for his electoral defeat.

Presidential Management Staff director general Cerge Remonde said Recto is "ideal for the position because of his extensive experience in both politics and economics."

"VAT is not a burden to the poor. On the contrary, it is from VAT that the government is able to subsidize the poor," he said.