1 out, 3 transferred in Cabinet ‘cleansing’
President Marcos has let go of a Cabinet member because of “underperformance” and transferred three others to different posts as the “cleansing” of the executive branch began following the dismal showing of the administration senatorial candidates in the midterm elections, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said on Friday.
Bersamin, who was kept at his post by the President, said Mr. Marcos also decided to retain his entire economic team, led by Finance Secretary Ralph Recto and Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, who were tasked with ensuring that the country’s economic reforms would be felt by ordinary Filipinos.
According to Bersamin, 52 senior government officials, among them Cabinet members, presidential advisers and other heads of agencies, had already submitted their courtesy resignations as part of the top-level revamp that Mr. Marcos ordered on Thursday.
“If the President has expectations and you do not perform, the messaging is underperformance is not going to be allowed,” Bersamin told a media briefing in Malacañang.
Evaluation ongoing
“There is an evaluation ongoing now of (the) performance (of all Cabinet members). But each Cabinet secretary will be evaluated depending on their tasks and the goals that they have set for their department or agency,” he said.
Bersamin rejected insinuations that there was an ongoing “purge” among the President’s direct subordinates.
“It’s a cleansing,” the executive secretary said, “as what the President wants because he really loves the people.”
In a statement announcing the Cabinet shake-up on Thursday, the Presidential Communications Office said the President’s move was a “bold reset” that would lead to a phase that would be “sharper, faster, and fully focused on the people’s most pressing needs.”
Who’s out?
The first to fall from the chopping block was Environment Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga, who was replaced by Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla.
Bersamin said Energy Undersecretary Sharon Garin will temporarily lead the Department of Energy as officer in charge.
In accepting Yulo-Loyzaga’s courtesy resignation, he said the President took note of “perceptions” that she was always on foreign trips.
But the executive secretary quickly stressed that there were no allegations of corruption against her.
“Whether it’s inefficiency or not, that’s not up for us to (determine). But the evaluation showed that it was time to have her rest for now,” Bersamin said.
Asked if Loyzaga had underperformed as environment secretary, he replied: “Maybe you can call it underperformance.”
Still Cabinet rank
Bersamin said Jerry Acuzar will also be removed as secretary of the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development, but will maintain his Cabinet rank after he was designated as presidential adviser for Pasig River improvement.
Like Yulo-Loyzaga, he said there was no corruption allegations against Acuzar, who once boasted that the government would be able to build 1 million homes annually over the next six years under the Marcos administration.
“It’s also not underperformance, (but) ‘underdelivery,’ He set a very high standard when he accepted the job,” Bersamin said of the former housing magnate.
“There may have been obstacles in his way which were beyond his control and beyond the control of the government. But to us now, because of the results of the elections, it’s time for the President to take him out there and bring another one who might make a better performance,” he said.
Urban Development Undersecretary Jose Ramon Aliling, the former CEO and president of Jose Aliling Construction Management Group, has been tapped to take over Acuzar’s post.
From DFA to UN
Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo, who has been at the forefront of the country’s efforts to shore up international support in protecting the West Philippine Sea, was tasked by the President to return to his former post as the country’s permanent representative to the United Nations.
“We have to understand the importance of his assignment in the United Nations because we are campaigning to be a nonpermanent member of the UN Security Council in 2027,” Bersamin said.
Manalo will be succeeded by a fellow career diplomat and one of his undersecretaries, Ma. Theresa Lazaro.
Lazaro served as the undersecretary for bilateral relations and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Affairs at the DFA. She has also held several overseas posts, including assignments in London, Berne and Madrid.
The executive secretary said the President had told him to stay put, dousing speculations that he was the real target of the sudden major reorganization in the Marcos administration.
Mr. Marcos, he added, assured him that he still enjoyed the President’s “full backing for as long as I wish to work for him.”
“And that is a very good gesture from the President because that is a sign of his manifestation of his full trust and confidence in myself,” said Bersamin, a retired chief justice.
Like all other appointed officials, he said he and all other senior government executives were at the mercy of the “will of the President of the Republic of the Philippines.”
‘Nobody hesitated’
“We have no illusions to hold on to our posts and if the President wants to replace us, he can do that because we’re like ordinary soldiers,” he said. “All of us tendered our courtesy resignations as called for by the President. Nobody hesitated.”
In deciding to keep his economic team intact, Bersamin said the President took note of their performance and expertise in running the country’s economic affairs.
Besides Recto and Pangandaman, also retained were Trade Secretary Ma. Cristina Roque, Socioeconomic Secretary Arsenio Balisacan and Special Assistant to the President for Investment and Economic Affairs Frederick Go.
“The President decided to retain these five members of the economic team so that there will be no more problems on the perception about where the country is going,” Bersamin said. (See related story on this page)
Shortly after Malacañang confirmed that Recto would be retained, the tax and the customs chiefs tendered their resignations on Friday to give the President a “free hand” in evaluating their performance.
Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Romeo Lumagui said he fully supported the President’s call for accountability in public service and that his challenge to realign government with public expectation was both appropriate and timely.
Bureau of Customs Commissioner Bienvenido Rubio said he backed Mr. Marcos’ policies and reforms “for national progress and development.”
Angara, Benitez backers
The private sector-led Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) on Friday said it wanted Education Secretary Sonny Angara and Director General Kiko Benitez of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) retained at their posts.
There has been no word from Malacañang about Angara and Benitez.
The two officials have become “a formidable tandem—bringing about an unprecedented level of coordination and collaboration between DepEd and Tesda,” PBEd said.
With Commission on Higer Education (CHEd) Chair Prospero de Vera ending next year, the group said it was hopeful that the President would appoint a successor who could continue strengthening the alignment of higher education with the changing demands of the labor market.
It said that the coordinated leadership across DepEd, Tesda, and CHEd was key to unlocking the country’s full demographic and economic potential. —WITH REPORTS FROM ALDEN MONZON AND KRIXIA SUBINGSUBING
