MANILA, 30 June 2004 — Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas will be out effective today and word has it that Donald Dee, president of the influential Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP), may take her place.
Sto. Tomas and other secretaries submitted their resignation earlier this month to give President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo a free hand in revamping her Cabinet.
DOLE insiders, however, said another possible replacement is Undersecretary Manuel Imson, who had performing Sto. Tomas’ duties in an acting capacity for the past year.
Sto. Tomas has had to be away as member of the International Labor Organization (ILO), of which she was president last year. She is also a member of the United Nation’s Global Commission on International Migration (GCIM).
The appointment of Dee, one of the most vocal in supporting Arroyo during the presidential campaign, could meet objections from labor groups considering his affiliation.
Dee’s appointment as labor chief, however, would not be unprecedented.
In 1987, then ECOP president Franklin Drilon was named labor secretary when President Corazon Aquino had to fire Augusto Sanchez amid protests by the military for his alleged communist leanings.
