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PRESIDENT Arroyo on Wednesday sacked Insurance
Commissioner Evangeline Escobillo, whose tough reforms
had earned her many detractors along with several graft
charges, by accepting her courtesy resignation.
Malacañang replaced her with one of her predecessors,
former Insurance Commission chief Eduardo Malinis, who
rose from the ranks and had been with the commission for
more than 25 years.
Malacañang announced these on Wednesday along with other
appointments, such as presidential assistant for Western
Visayas Rafael Coscolluela as administrator of the Sugar
Regulatory Administration, and in Coscolluela’s place,
presidential adviser for revenue enhancement Narciso
Santiago, husband of Sen. Miriam Santiago.
BusinessMirror tried to contact Escobillo for comment,
but she did not return calls as of press time.
Reports
of Escobillo’s replacement circulated in June, amid
calls for her ouster by public-transport and insurance
agents and brokers because of her alleged
“counterproductive decisions.”
Among
these decisions is a circular mandating life insurance
firms to subscribe to minimum premium, which would
allegedly make insurance policies too costly for
ordinary Filipinos.
Zenaida
Maranan, president of Federation of Jeepney Operators
and Drivers Association of the Philippines (Fejodap),
had filed a graft case against Escobillo with the Office
of the Ombudsman in May last year for allegedly favoring
a particular nonlife insurance company in the issuance
of compulsory third-party liability.
Escobillo is also facing two other graft cases, one of
them filed by commission employees touching on a
P10.6-million computerization contract that Escobillo
allegedly ordered paid even before the agreement was
signed; the other by Reymar Mansilungan, a manager, for
alleged violation of the Insurance Code.
Other
appointments may be announced later and Executive
Secretary Eduardo Ermita has broadly hinted that
National Telecommunications Commissioner Abraham
Abesamis would be replaced by Undersecretary Ruel
Canobas of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on
Political Affairs.
Other
new designations include Virgilio Montera as
Transportation Assistant Secretary, Veniedo Reyes as
Public Works regional director, and Nilo Rosas and Ruth
Rana Padilla as acting commissioners of the Professional
Regulation Commission.
Ermita
also said that the President is likely to appoint losing
Team Unity bets to government posts after the one-year
appointment ban on them lapses, possibly to fill in
possible vacancies in GOCCs, government financial
institutions, and agencies attached to line departments
and the Office of the President, which are all
undergoing revamps.
TU bets
who did not make the cut in May are former Presidential
Chief of Staff Michael Defensor, who reportedly turned
down two offers for government seats, former congressman
Prospero Pichay, Sulu Sultan Jamalul Kiram, former
Ilocos Sur governor Chavit Singson, former Zambales
governor Vicente Magsaysay, actor Cesar Montano, and
former senators Ralph Recto, Vicente Sotto, and Tessie
Aquino-Oreta. |
