“The President has not given any indication that he is unhappy with Secretary Deles and we [maintain] the position that Secretary Deles continues to enjoy the trust and confidence of the President,” Deputy Presidential Spokesman Abigail Valte said.

Some lawmakers have called for the resignation of Deles, accusing her of misusing the funds of the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process (OPAPP).

The lawmakers were apparently referring to the P5 million that had been turned over by the government to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) for the Bangsamoro Leadership Management Institute (BLMI), in fulfillment of a commitment of the previous administration to push forward peace negotiations.

In addition, Deles was also reported to have given P31 million to the former Alex Boncayao Brigade urban guerrillas.

Meanwhile, Valte reiterated that the incident in Basilan, where 19 soldiers were killed during an encounter with the MILF, would be high on the agenda of the next round of peace negotiations.

“This is really part of the agenda. It’s very telling that Secretary Deles said that they want to talk about how to avoid such incidents in the future and the expectation of the President is how do we push forward the peace talks in light of the Basilan incident,” she said.

(Mia Gonzalez)