Liza Maza, the lead convenor of the National Anti-Poverty Commission, on Monday tendered her irrevocable resignation, saying it would be very difficult for her to work any longer with the Duterte administration.
She told reporters the decision of President Rodrigo Duterte to terminate the peace talks with the communist rebels had something to do with her resignation.
Malacañang expressed regret over her decision but expressed its gratitude to her.
Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said the Palace was grateful for Maza’s service to the country.
“We thank Secretary Liza Maza for her invaluable services to the government for the past two years, even as we express our regret with her decision to leave the government,” Roque told reporters.
But he said he was clueless as to why Maza connected the peace negotiations between the communist rebels and the government in her resignation.
“I don’t know really why she had to connect the peace talks with her work in the NAPC,” Roque said.
Maza expressed disappointment over the return of the “old forces” in the Duterte administration, such as the rise of former president and Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as House Speaker and the alliance of Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos with Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte’s Hugpong ng Pagbabago.
“While the fabricated and baseless murder charges were eventually dismissed as they should have been, and which I hailed as a triumph or truth and justice, the revival of these cases and the issuance of warrants of arrest did take its toll on the work that I was pursuing at the NAPC,” Maza said.
“I realized that similar attacks by the anti-reform, rightist and militarist forces in our society will continue to undermine my leadership of this agency. As such, I simply can no longer work under these circumstances,” she said.
Maza, a former Gabriela party-list lawmaker, said she stopped receiving any invitations to attend Cabinet meetings since September 2007.
“I joined the Cabinet more than two years ago with high hopes of helping to facilitate meaningful socio-economic and political reforms from within the government when the President initially engaged in the peace negotiations that can potentially bring these about,” she said.
“His latest pronouncement, however, on finally terminating the talks brings me to the conclusion that these reforms may no longer be possible under the current administration.
“In any case, genuine change cannot happen when the old forces of fascism and corruption, and the defenders of elite and foreign interests, are consolidating their position in government.”