Speculations are mounting that with the resignation of Ralph Recto as secretary general of the National Economic and Development Authority more members of the Arroyo Cabinet would follow suit purportedly to prepare for next years’s elections.

That’s the reason Recto cited – to prepare for the 2010 elections – for his sudden departure from his Cabinet post “to explore” his political options.

He said as one aspiring for an elective position he had to resign in order not to prejudice the office he heads, especially at this time of economic crisis. One cannot pursue his political plans and at the same time effectively manage a major department of the national government, he stressed.

Recto is the first member of the Arroyo Cabinet who has tendered his resignation to prepare for the coming elections.

Incidentally, he was the last that President Gloria Arroyo appointed to the Cabinet among the senatorial administration candidates who lost in the 2007 polls.

He was appointed economic planning secretary in July 2008.

As may be expected, reactions to Recto’s sudden resignation from his high profile office were varied.

Some say it was the best example that other Cabinet officials should follow if they are planning to run in next year’s elections, instead of using their positions to advance their selfish political interest.

But critics of the Arroyo administration are suspicious the NEDA official may just be uncomfortable being “a government apologist on economic issues,” without specifying what issues, which they say are indefensible.

Still others feel Recto’s move was “unacceptable considering that the world is in the midst of financial crisis.”

Federation of Philippine Industries president Jesus Arranza said the NEDA chief should have prolonged a little longer his stewardship of his office to forestall any possible lapses in the implementation of the programs he has already started at this critical time.

In a statement the other day Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said the President accepted Recto’s resignation to give him the time he wants to pursue his senatorial ambition.

“I suppose he believes in the saying that the early bird catches the worm, and he wants to be able to move around freely with much more time in preparations for 2010,” the palace official said.

But Ermita acknowledged that it may be possible that Recto’s resignation could only be the start of more resignations from the Cabinet as the campaign season approaches.

That should be expected.

Even so, the question persists: Why should they be so eager to run under the administration banner if true that the Arroyo government is so evil and corrupt as portrayed at every turn by the President’s enemies?

Or is it a rebuke precisely to the running riot of blandishments by the President’s sworn enemies

(zhern_218@yahoo.com)