Estrada's chief of staff quits

0 Comments | Asian Political News, March 27, 2000

MANILA, March 22 Kyodo

Philippine President Joseph Estrada's chief of staff resigned late Tuesday after making disparaging remarks about the president's drinking, a little over a month after taking the job.

Estrada told a radio interview Wednesday that he accepted the "irrevocable resignation" of Presidential Chief of Staff Aprodicio Laquian.

Laquian was apparently forced to tender his resignation Tuesday night after telling a press forum earlier in the day, "At 4 a.m., I am the only sober person in the room."

Laquian told the audience that his being a teetotaler is an asset for his job as chief of staff.

"It (being a teetotaler) is the best thing working for me," Laquian told the Manila Overseas Press Club. "If there is one person who is sober in the room who would be able to take all of these things that were signed and then hide them in my record book, then the decision-making will probably be, in the beautiful light of the morning, very rational."

Laquian added, "There have been reports...that most of the major decisions made by the president were made at the ungodly hour of 4 o'clock in the morning after he had had some sessions with his friends with monosyllabic surnames. Now, the reason for the question is that we are afraid that one of these days, the president might wake up like Abraham Lincoln did...in 1863 and ask his secretary of state, 'I freed the what?"'

Laquian later said he made the remarks "in jest." Estrada, however, said he did not find Laquian's comments funny.

In his resignation letter, Laquian wrote, "I deeply regret the unintended damage that this has caused you."

Many were surprised by Laquian's remarks, which confirmed rumors of Estrada's late night drinking sprees with his friends, known as his "midnight cabinet."

During the 1998 presidential campaign, Estrada admitted that he was a drinker and womanizer but said he has since reformed.

Estrada said he is not inclined to name a new chief of staff at the moment. "It's a temporary position anyway," he said.

Laquian, a Filipino-Canadian, renounced his foreign citizenship before taking the job Feb. 8.