Philippine President Gloria Maca-pagal Arroyo accepted the national treasurer's resignation yesterday, but officials offered assurances that the move won't affect government efforts to bail the Philippines out of its financial doldrums.
Mina Figueroa, a key member of Arroyo's economic team, disclosed late Monday that she'd tendered her resignation, sparking fears that it could further unsettle a government already jittery over mounting financial problems.
PHOTO: EPA
Figueroa told ABS-CBN television that she wants to return to the private sector and denied reports she was quitting, effective Oct. 15, because of differences with other finance officials over the government's borrowing.
Arroyo's spokesman, Ignacio Bunye, said Arroyo has accepted Figueroa's resignation, and "the search is on for someone with equal integrity, intensive financial background and expertise and competence."
"The president acknowledges the personal reasons cited by Figueroa, and these should not be mixed up with policy issues that are handled institutionally by the Department of Finance," he added in a statement. In an apparent effort to ward off speculation about the resignation's possible dire effects, Finance Secretary Juanita Amatong told DZMM radio that the treasury "just implements whatever policy we make in the Department of Finance."
Figueroa, a private banker who became deputy treasurer in August 2001, first offered to resign in February but said other officials persuaded her to stay. She became national treasurer early this year.
News of the resignation came at a shaky time, as Arroyo grapples with burgeoning foreign debt, a gaping budget deficit and rising oil prices, which analysts say might lead to a financial meltdown similar to Argentina's in three years.
Argentina defaulted on its public debt in 2001 due to a huge deficit and staggering debt.
A government source told Dow Jones NewsWires that Figueroa decided to leave after being replaced as head of a treasury bond auction committee, where she often rejected bank demands for high interest rates on treasury bills and bonds to limit the government's financial obligations. Other officials had disagreed with her, the source said.
The stock market took the resignation as a catalyst for a technical correction, falling 2.3 percent after nine straight sessions of gains.
Some traders said the resignation could also hurt the peso currency and Philippine sovereign bonds, because it adds to uncertainty over the country's financial situation.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique