Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Recto will take the place of Augusto Santos in the government economic team effective today and will attend his first Cabinet meeting next week.

Santos will return to his old post as deputy director general of NEDA after serving as acting chief of the socio-economic planning agency since last year, according to Ermita.

In a news conference in Ma- lacañang, Ermita defended Recto’s appointment as NEDA chief, saying the former senator is qualified for the job and denying this was payback for running in the administration slate in the last elections.

"He is qualified. Remember he was the author of the VAT law. He’s also an economist," he said.

Recto’s appointment paper was signed last July 10 and has been forwarded to the bicameral Commission on Appointments, Ermita said.

Recto, a former chairman of the Senate committee on ways and means and author of the controversial Expanded Value Added Tax Law, lost in the 2007 senatorial elections as a member of the administration Team Unity ticket. His defeat was largely attributed to public uproar against the VAT.

Ermita urged government critics to give Recto a chance to prove his worth.

"What is important there is we recognize that the President is the appointing authority provided for in the Constitution. The President alone will know the qualifications of those people she thinks could help her in governance. Hindi naman gagawa si Presidente ng appointment na hindi makakatulong sa kanya," he said.

Recto said he looks forward to working in NEDA, adding that he is ready to work with the opposition on economic policies to help the country rise above the global economic slowdown triggered by high oil and food prices.

"It will be a very challenging job considering current conditions -- global credit crunch, high fuel, rice and commodity prices -- but I look forward to possibly working with the best and the brightest of government employees," he said.

"I also look forward to sharing ideas with former NEDA director generals on a wide range of issues and hopefully work out a consensus with the opposition on strategic economic policies regarding economic threats and opportunities," he said.

The appointment of Recto came less than three weeks after President Arroyo appointed former Sen. Vicente Sotto III to head the Dangerous Drugs Board.

Another defeated administration senatorial candidate, Michael Defensor, was also appointed to head a task force handling the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3.

Asked if the President will appoint other losing senatorial bets to government posts, Ermita said: "Anything is possible."

He said that former Team Unity senatorial bets are "qualified" for any government posts.

There are speculations that the President is eyeing former Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero Pichay either as chief of the Bureau of Customs or as head of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration. Former Senator Tessie Aquino-Oreta will reportedly assume the top post of the Commission on Higher Education.

Other senatorial bets who lost in the 2007 polls were former Zambales governor Vicente Magsaysay, actor Cesar Montano, Sultan Jamalul Kiram III and former Ilocos Sur governor Luis Singson.

Recto earned a degree in Commerce Major in Business Administration at the De La Salle University and later obtained master’s degrees in Public Administration from the University of the Philippines Diliman and in Strategic Business Economics from the University of Asia and the Pacific.

Recto, who comes from a political family, was elected senator in the 2001 election and served until June 30, 2007. He was a former representative of the 4th district of Batangas.

Apart from the EVAT law, the former senator authored the Special Economic Zone Law, Comprehensive Tax Reform Law, Social Reform and Poverty Alleviation Act, Retail Trade Liberalization Law, Lateral Attrition Law, Sin Tax Law, Philippine Overseas Shipping Law, Court of Tax Appeals Law, Special Purpose Vehicle Law, and Rent Control Law, among others.

He is married to Batangas Governor Vilma SantosRecto, father to Ryan Christian and stepfather to Luis Philippe Manzano.

Pimentel welcomes Recto’s appointment, Chiz prefers career man

By MARIO B. CASAYURAN

While Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel Jr. welcomed the appointment of former colleague Ralph Recto as head of the NEDA, Senator Francis Escudero said the Palace would have done better with a career official.

Pimentel said Recto is qualified to head NEDA as he has a vast knowledge on economics and would be of help in finding solutions to the country’s economic problems.

However, Escudero said Malacanang should have appointed a career man to head the NEDA.

"While I wish him (Recto) well and without taking anything away from him, government is not an employment agency. Would have preferred a career person to be appointed,’’ said a text message from Escudero’s office at the Senate.

Escudero is chairman of the Senate ways and means committee which Recto used to chair during his six-year stint in the Upper House. Recto lost in the last May 2007 senatorial election.

Under the law, losing candidates could only be appointed to a government post one year after an election.

Recto was the author of the expanded value-added tax (EVAT) law passed and enacted in the 13th Congress.

The Senate and the House of Representatives open their doors on Monday for the second regular session of the 14th Congress after a two-month summer recess.