CONFIRMED. (From left) Environment Secretary Toni Loyzaga, Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado Estrella III, and Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco hurdle the Commission on Appointments hearing at the Senate on Tuesday (Sept. 27, 2022). The military officials behind them also earned the Commission’s approval. (PNA photo by Avito Dalan)
MANILA – The Commission on Appointments (CA) confirmed on Tuesday the ad interim appointments of Secretary Conrado Estrella III of the Department of Agrarian Reform, Secretary Toni Loyzaga of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Secretary Christina Frasco of the Department of Tourism (DOT), and 62 military officials.
Estrella vowed before the CA that he will not be an "armchair" executive.
"I shall bring government closer to the people," he told the CA members.
CA members acknowledged Estrella's role in the one-year moratorium on unpaid land amortization of agrarian reform beneficiaries approved by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Meanwhile, Loyzaga assured the DENR will be under an ethical, science-informed, and risk-based stewardship and will be “inclusive, consultative, and transparent”.
"We will pursue these goals very carefully but also expeditiously," she said.
On the other hand, Frasco is focused on using tourism as a major economic tool to contribute to the economic resurgence.
"Notwithstanding all the difficulties that the country has faced, all of the upheavals that our people have suffered through, none of these have served to dampen the beauty of our natural resources and none of these have served to diminish in any way the strength and spirit of Filipino people which we intend to herald under the helm of the Department of Tourism," the former mayor of Liloan town in Cebu said. (PNA)
