In a forum with the Capampangans in Media, Inc. (CAMI) here, Alvarez said Pimentel had informed him of the endorsement to the post vacated by Arthur Tugade whom Duterte appointed as secretary of the Department of Transportation.
“I am honored that he (Pimentel) believes in me, but I will not push it further. There will be others equally qualified. If that (appointment) will come, it will,” Alvaro said.
So far, Duterte has yet to consider Pimentel’s recommendation. The president was the candidate of Pimentel’s PDP-Laban in last May’s presidential polls.
Alvaro said that if Duterte appoints him to head the CDC, “who am I to say no?”
Alvaro said, however, that he had heard of a shortlist of four persons, including himself, being considered for the CDC top post, but that he could remember only two, including a certain “Gen. Primero” and current CDC vice president for finance Noel Manankil.
A source from the CDC, who asked not to be quoted, said Transport Sec. Tugade is backing Manankil, who was his finance vice president during his three-year stint in the CDC. Tugade was a classmate of Duterte in their law course in San Beda college. While former Pres. Aquino appointed him to the CDC, Tugade resigned last April to support the candidacy of Duterte in the May elections.
Alvaro said that last April, he had divested himself of involvement as head of the BB International which has already finished the P2.5-billion Midori Hotel and Casino here and will invest some P12 billion for a full tourism project in the coming years. The move was seen as in anticipation of his appointment to the CDC.
CIAC
Meanwhile, sources within the Clark International Airport Corp. (CIAC) said that current CIAC president-CEO Emigdio Tanjuatco III is likely to be reappointed with former CIAC vice president Alex Cauguiran to be reinstalled to his former post at the airport. During the Aquino administration, the CIAC was removed from the jurisdiction of the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) and placed under the Department of Transportation now headed by Tugade.
