Duterte names friends in cabinet
Print Edition
PHILIPPINE President Rodrigo Duterte beefed up his administration by naming his military chief and his running mate as ministers yesterday, as well as appointing a racy dancer in his communications team.
Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, who ran unsuccessfully for vice president last year, will become foreign secretary and armed forces chief-of-staff, General Eduardo Ano, is to be the interior portfolio before his tenure ends in October.
Duterte also made a strong defense of Margaux Justiniano Uson, an entertainer more famous for her risque dance moves, online sex advice and revealing photographs on social media than politics.
Uson was appointed assistant presidential communications secretary.
“She is bright, is articulate. And if it’s just a matter of dancing, she was not dancing naked,” Duterte said.
“During the campaign, (she was) a little bit sexier than the other, but that does not (allow) anybody to deprive her of the honour that she deserves.”
A diehard Duterte apologist, Uson has endured a frosty relationship with journalists, and called them “presstitutes” on more than one occasion for attacking the Philippines President. And Duterte insisted he had no hesitation in appointing Uson.
“There’s no law that says if you expose half of your body, with shorts and bra, you are disqualified,” he said. “Check Facebook and it shows she can have a very structured mind. So what’s the problem?”
Duterte delivered the news of his new appointments when a reporter asked him about the two cabinet posts currently held by caretakers.
“You are now facing the next interior and local government secretary,” Duterte announced.
Ano was an infantry division commander in Davao when Duterte was the city’s mayor. He said he needed Ano as interior minister to deal with country’s rogue police and Islamic State-linked militants.
Ano would be the second army chief Duterte has picked to join his cabinet this week. Roy Cimatu, who also served in Davao, was appointed environment minister on Monday.
Cayetano’s appointment was expected. He was one of Duterte’s top campaign donors and takes the foreign affairs portfolio after the expiry of a one-year ban on losing candidates from taking government posts.
He worked closely as a foreign policy adviser previously in Duterte’s administration.
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