Bersamin, budget chief out in Cabinet shake-up
The flood control scandal has reached the halls of Malacañang, prompting President Marcos to shake up his Cabinet by plucking out his most trusted officials after they were tagged in the massive corruption mess.
In a press briefing on Monday afternoon, Palace press officer Claire Castro said the President accepted the resignation of Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, and Presidential Legislative Liaison Office Undersecretary Adrian Carlos Bersamin, who is a son of the executive secretary’s nephew.
Castro then announced the appointment of Finance Secretary Ralph Recto as the new executive secretary, making him the President’s third executive secretary after Bersamin, a former chief justice, who was appointed in September 2022, replacing lawyer Vic Rodriguez, who served for only two and a half months.
“Secretary Recto’s long record in economic policymaking, fiscal legislation, and national planning positions him well to oversee the day-to-day operations of government and coordinate the implementation of high-impact programs,” Castro said.
Secretary Frederick Go, the special assistant to the President for investment and economic affairs, will replace Recto in the Department of Finance.
“Secretary Go has played a central role in advancing investments, strengthening investor confidence, and aligning economic initiatives across agencies. He will now oversee the country’s fiscal direction and the implementation of the administration’s economic agenda,” Castro noted.
Meanwhile, Budget Undersecretary Rolando Toledo was named as officer in charge of the Department of Budget and Management.
No replacements were announced for the vacated posts of Go and the younger Bersamin.
Out of propriety
Mr. Marcos has also yet to name an official to replace the late Juan Ponce Enrile as chief presidential legal counsel.
Bersamin and Pangandaman “respectfully offered and tendered their resignations out of delicadeza after their departments were mentioned in allegations related to the flood control anomaly currently under investigation, and in recognition of the responsibility to allow the administration to address the matter appropriately,” she added.
Another reshuffle may happen in the coming weeks or months as the President also expects other members of his Cabinet to submit their resignation out of sense of propriety should their names get dragged in the controversy.
Mr. Marcos has urged other Cabinet members and executive branch officials who could be implicated or involved in the scandal to also step down from their posts in advance.
“If, for example, a member of the Cabinet is involved or could be implicated in this kind of anomaly, the President thought that they themselves should submit their resignation out of delicadeza,” Castro noted.
Malacañang also denied that the sacking of Mr. Marcos’ officials was a ploy to protect them from possible accountability in the ongoing investigations into the flood control scandal.
“Whether they are private citizens or public officers, if they are liable, they should be held accountable,” Castro pointed out.
Allegations
The younger Bersamin and Pangandaman were identified by resigned Ako Bicol Rep. Elizaldy Co, as former House appropriations committee chair, to be among those whom he had communicated with and had supposedly told him the order of Mr. Marcos and former Speaker Martin Romualdez to “insert” P100 billion worth of graft-tainted public works projects in the 2025 national budget.
In the first part of his recorded video released on Friday, Co alleged that some time in 2024, he met with Pangandaman, the younger Bersamin and Romualdez at the Aguado Building in front of Malacañang’s Gate 4, where Bersamin gave him the list of projects to be inserted.
The list, he claimed, “came directly from PBBM and he took it from a brown leather bag” that he recognized to be Mr. Marcos’ from the 2022 elections.
Co also mentioned the name of Justice Undersecretary Jojo Cadiz, whom he reportedly told if he could insert P50 billion instead because “the DPWH funds would end up larger than the Department of Education,” violating the constitutional requirement that education gets the largest share of the national budget.
The elder Bersamin’s name was linked to the scandal back in September when former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Undersecretary Roberto Bernardo tagged him as among several government officials who allegedly received kickbacks from corruption-tainted flood control projects.
Bersamin had denied the accusation.
In his sworn affidavit submitted to the Senate blue ribbon committee on Sept. 25, Bernardo said that sometime in 2024, Education Undersecretary Trygve Olaivar called him for a meeting to discuss about “unprogrammed appropriations supposedly for the Office of the Executive Secretary.”
The DPWH Bulacan First District Engineering Office, then headed by engineer Henry Alcantara, submitted a list of projects worth P2.85 billion and Olaivar then told him that the “commitment” to be coursed through was “15 percent,” or about P427.5 million.
