Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — Incoming president Rodrigo Duterte has offered two former government officials key Cabinet posts in his administration.
In a late night press conference on Saturday, Duterte said he asked former national treasurer Leonor Briones to be his education secretary. He also asked Benjamin Diokno to be budget secretary again. Both served in the Estrada administration.
The two have yet to say if they will accept Duterte’s offer.
According to the incoming president, Briones asked that she be given until Tuesday to decide. Duterte will present to the public his Cabinet on Tuesday afternoon.
Without dropping names, he said he already has appointments in the Bureau of Customs, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Land Transportation Office.
He said there will also be two departments which will have secretaries coming from their ranks. These include the Department of Health.
Duterte pointed out Briones and Diokno are neither his former classmates nor his childhood friends, unlike some of his other appointees.
Nonetheless, he defended his earlier appointments: he said he only has a small group of people to choose from-mostly his college dormmates, fraternity mates and childhood friends from Davao.
“Even when I was a congressman, I was not socializing actually. So wala ako kakilala kung sino itong looming genius sa government. Ang mga kilala ko yung mga brad ko, at yung mga kababata ko dito na mahusay.”
“I could not have selected from a larger portion of the population for the simple reason is that ang horizon ko o dimension ko sa aking pagkatao, limitado ako sa eskwelahan, dormitoryo, mga kaibigan, mga brad.”
[Translation: “Even when I was a congressman, I was not socializing actually. I do not know any of these looming geniuses in government. I know my fraternity mates, and childhood friends who perform well…
“I could not have selected from a larger portion of the population for the simple reason that my dimension as a person is limited to those I know at school, at the dormitory, my friends, and my fraternity mates.”]
