Angara likely to breeze through CA confirmation — lawmaker
FORMER Senator Juan Edgardo M. Angara’s confirmation as Education secretary is expected to sail smoothly when he faces the Commission on Appointments (CA) on Wednesday, a congressman said on Sunday.
The constitutional committee expects Mr. Angara to bare his plan on resolving the country’s education crisis, Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny T. Pimentel said in a statement.
“We expect Secretary Angara’s trouble-free confirmation,” he said. “Secretary Angara is widely recognized to be immensely qualified for the job. So, this is not just about according courtesy to a former member of the House of Representatives and the Senate.”
Members of the appointment body are expected to ask Mr. Angara about his roadmap to bring up the test scores of Filipino students in global assessments, said Mr. Pimentel, an assistant minority floor leader of the appointment body.
Mr. Angara replaced Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio as Education secretary on July 19, a month after she resigned from the Cabinet amid a growing political rift between the Marcoses and her family.
Filipino students were still among the world’s weakest in math, reading and science, according to the 2022 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). The Philippines ranking 77th out of 81 countries and performed worse than the global average in all categories.
The CA’s education committee headed by Senator Rafael “Raffy” T. Tulfo will hear Mr. Angara’s appointment.
The appointment body is also set to hear Migrant Workers Secretary Hans Leo J. Cacdac’s appointment on Wednesday, to be deliberated by the CA’s labor committee headed by Negros Occidental Rep. Mercedes K. Alvarez.
President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. named Mr. Cacdac Migrant Workers secretary on April 25, replacing Maria Susana “Toots” V. Ople, who died. — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio