Key Among Ed aide ask to resign

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—Leaders of the good governance movement Kaya Natin! supporting Pampanga Gov. Eddie Panlilio have asked the provincial administrator to resign in the best interest of the Kapampangan.
Harvey Keh, a leader of Kaya Natin!, announced the group’s call for lawyer Vivian Dabu to quit, in the media forum Talakayan sa Tinapayan in Metro Manila on Sunday.
“While we continue to solidly stand behind Governor Panlilio, we feel that it will be in the best interest of the people of Pampanga for Attorney Dabu to resign or for Governor Panlilio to transfer her to another position in the capitol,” Keh told the Philippine Daily Inquirer by telephone.
Dabu’s resignation, he said, would be “a step towards uniting the province and delivering better basic services for the people of Pampanga.”
The group clarified, however, that it would continue to respect Panlilio’s decision on this issue.
Reached by phone on Sunday, Panlilio thanked his colleagues for expressing their views. Despite this and previous clamors by other groups, Panlilio said he was not inclined to heed their suggestion.
“It has been my position to retain [Dabu] and to lessen her tasks. [Budget officer] Nida Manalad now heads the [bids and awards committee] and we are looking for another person who will head [the quarry special committee] Balas. We are scouting for a chief of staff,” he said.
Sought for comments about the call for her resignation, Dabu said: “It is the governor who appointed me. I work at his prerogative. I’m leaving it up to him.”
Civil society leaders have blamed Dabu for the two-month protest of 40 former quarry workers over non-compliance with an agreement to unconditionally reinstate them to work.
They said it appeared that those who want Panlilio to resign or be recalled have rallied around the cause of the sacked workers.
Most of the 13 members of Panlilio’s internal team said they left because they had difficulty in dealing with Dabu.
Others find Dabu to be very legalistic and she lacks skills in human relations.
Dabu, 42, said she was merely being efficient with her work and trying to implement what the laws prescribe.
In separate phone interviews, Isabela Gov. Maria Gracia Cielo Padaca, Naga City Mayor Jesse Robredo, San Isidro (Nueva Ecija) Mayor Sonia Lorenzo and Ifugao Gov. Teodoro Baguilat Jr. confirmed their group’s position in calling for Dabu’s resignation.
The recommendation, they said, was made along efforts to help Panlilio unite further the civil society sectors in the province.
Padaca, Robredo and Lorenzo said their suggestions came after consultations with civil society leaders, discussions with Panlilio and deliberations within the group.
“Among (Father) Gov has a lot of trust and confidence in [Dabu] but some felt that she has been isolating others who want to help the governor,” said Padaca. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon