Gloria Arroyo Appoints Raul Gonzales As Presidential Legal Adviser

Manila – Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales is set to assume the post of presidential legal counsel, according to Executive Secretary Eduardo ErmitaEduardo Ermita.

The controversial actions and decisions of Gonzales, 75, at the DOJ have time and again provoked the ire of mediamen and human-rights watchdogs, such as his order to arrest all journalists covering the Manila Peninsula siege.

His critics also blamed him for tarnishing the credibility of the Justice Department with his evidently biased attacks on newsmen, private citizens and foreign nationals airing legitimate grievances against the Arroyo administration.

Gonzales has many times been slammed for his continued refusal to acknowledge valid complaints against the government, such as the graft charges leveled at the Arroyo family and the genocide against journalist and peasant leaders.

Until September

But Gonzales intends to stay on as Justice Secretary until September because he wants to conducts the reinvestigation of the twin-murders of publicist Salvador “Bubby” Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito.

The highly-publicized Dacer-Corbito double-murder case points to Sen. Panfilo Lacson as one of the masterminds, along with senior police officials Michael Ray Aquino and Cesar Mancao.

Leading Oppositionist

Lacson, who ran for president in 2004 and a leading oppositionist, has recently announced his withdrawal from the presidential derby next year.

Aquino is in the United States facing federal charges of espionage while Mancao is now under the Justice Department’s witness Protection Program.

Running for Mayor

“Resignation is inevitable for me because I will be joining the elections next year. I will have to resign by November,” Gonzales told reporters earlier.

Gonzales will be running for mayor of Iloilo city in the 2010 elections.

Political Ambition

Meanwhile, Jesus Dureza, the incumbent legal counsel and presidential adviser on the peace process, says he has not been officially informed of the transfer.

Taking up the Justice portfolio is Solicitor General Agnes Devanadera. A Malacañang source speaking on condition of anonymity told Standard Today that Devanadera got the post by virtue of “not having political ambition.”

Devanadera has been officer-in-charge of the DOJ on Sept. 1, 2007, when Gonzales was hospitalized for ulcer. On Sept. 5, 2007, when Gonzales had a kidney transplant, Devanadera became Acting Justice Secretary.

Midnight Passage

The Constitution states that Arroyo’s term will end in 2010. The government has already made assurances that elections will be held, despite the midnight passage of House Resolution 1109, which will authorize the administration-dominated Congress to convene a Constituent Assembly without the Senate to change the present form of government.

It is not immediately clear, however, if the elections will be presidential or parliamentary – where Arroyo can legally run for Prime Minister with an indefinite term of office.