(Eagle News) — Goddes Libiran has resigned from her post as Transportation Assistant Secretary of Communication and Commuter Affairs.
In a Facebook post, Libiran said she was leaving “because I have decided to once and for all, prioritize my family, and become a MOTHER to my only child, who was barely a year old when I joined (the Department of Transportation).”
“My family, especially my six-year old daughter, has, unfortunately, endured a backseat role in my life, whereas they should have been my front and center. For many years, I have been three persons— a mother, a wife, and a public servant. Now, I choose to just be one. After all, at the end of the day, FAMILY is what really matters. And for me, they are the most important,” she said.
She said she made the decision with the last three months being “quite daunting and difficult for me on a personal level, especially with tragic accidents and deaths of very close loved ones and relatives.”
She said COVID-19, in particular, “took its toll” on her family, with her whole family becoming infected just last month.
“I even witnessed how my mom, husband, and brother suffered because of the virus,” she said.
She said she was also “robbed in my very home that is supposed to be my family’s sanctuary and haven.”
“These things happening all in a month’s time were just way too much, even for someone as resilient and as resolute as I would like to be,” she said.
She thanked Transportation Secretary Art Tugade, whom she called a “visionary,” and President Rodrigo Duterte “for giving us the inspiration, and for allowing Secretary Tugade and the DOTr to flourish and extend all the leeway in pursuit of his mandate to give the Filipinos a more comfortable life.”
“It is this simple but very tall order which made us at the DOTr do the improbable and achieve the impossible, and allowed our country to truly experience its golden age of infrastructure. I am happy, for in my heart, I know that in my almost 6 years of service in the agency, I was able to help people. The lines of DOTr have been opened to our primary stakeholders— the masses, the commuters. I know in my heart that somehow, the public felt that the DOTr listens, delivers, and serves. That, I think, was my purpose,” she said.
According to Libiran, her resignation is effective Feb. 28.