Ramos Urges Philippines Cabinet Purge
The military chief of staff today asked that several Cabinet ministers be fired for incompetence, piling further pressure on a government faced with a growing polarization between the left and right.
Gen. Fidel V. Ramos said after a 90-minute meeting with Aquino that the military urged changes in her 9-month-old Cabinet.
At a later news conference, presidential spokesman Teodoro Benigno made no mention of possible Cabinet changes, but he said Aquino was “moving in the direction” of appointing a chief of staff to improve efficiency.
A television station quoted Benigno as saying the president may dismiss “one or two” ministers and trim the powers of a third. But Benigno told the Associated Press that he had made “absolutely no statements” about Cabinet changes.
Ramos said he and senior generals recommended “the immediate replacement of Cabinet officials who have not performed adequately, especially in putting into operation in the field the mechanisms for efficient government performance.”
He did not name the ministers on the list and denied press reports that the military had demanded a purge of leftists from the Cabinet.
Newspapers said Ramos asked for the ouster of, among others, Executive Secretary Joker Arroyo and Labor Minister Augusto Sanchez.
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