President Gloria Arroyo officiated at the swearing in of new Vice President Teofisto Guingona as the bicameral Congress swiftly approved the latter's appointment on Tuesday.

Arroyo said she picked Guingona for being the first legislator to call for the resignation ofdeposed president Joseph Estrada amid accusations of corruption. Guingona, 72 was later named as the secretary of foreign affairs.

Macapagal-Arroyo swore in two secretaries who served under her predecessor, Joseph Estrada, but resigned late last year after corruption allegations surfaced against him.

After his swearing in, Trade and Industry Secretary Manuel Roxas occupies the position he held before resigning last year from Estrada's Cabinet. Filemon Uriarte was also reappointed to the Department of Science and Technology.

Arroyo said she has given the members of her Cabinet full freedom to run their respective departments but she warned them that they would have to be accountable to the people for their decisions.

"My type of governance has always been: "I choose good people and then I let them do their work. I do not micro-manage. And I think the Cabinet members have been doing their work tremendously," she said in recent interview.

Arroyo said it was Interior and Local Government (GILG) Secretary Jose Lina, who designated Ilocos Sur Gov. LuisSingson as the DILG's consultant on the government campaign against illegal gambling, particularly the outlawed numbers game "Jueteng."

"I did not choose him, it was Lina," said Gloria, when asked to explain and justify Singson's appointment.

Lina said he believes that the expertise and deep knowledge of Singson about the nationwide ope's campaign against Jueteng and other illegal numbers game.

"We all know who is the best expert on the numbers game, one who knows the nitty-gritty of the operations and who are the jueteng lords and the jueteng operators and I think there is no dispute that it is Singson," said Lina.

"This is part of the new moral order that the President would like to establish in the country. We would like to make our country illegal gambling-free because it destroys the moral fabric of our people," Lina said.
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Earlier, Arroyo gave Justice Secretary Hernando Perez the full authority to decide on who among the prospective witnesses in the cases against former President Joseph Estrada may be granted immunity.