Marcos names new SolGen, Ched chief

NEW ON PALACE LEGAL TEAM President Marcos swears in lawyer Darlene Marie Berberabe as the new Solicitor General on Thursday. Until her new job, Berberabe was the dean of the University of the Philippines College of Law. —PCO PHOTO

President Marcos has appointed two women to his Cabinet—Solicitor General Darlene Marie Berberabe and Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) Chair Shirley Agrupis—and retained the Remulla brothers as well as Defense Secretary Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. in his official family.

Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin announced the latest movements in the Cabinet in a Palace press briefing on Thursday.

Bersamin said Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla and his younger brother, Interior Secretary Juanito Victor “Jonvic” Remulla, will stay, along with Teodoro.

Mr. Marcos had accepted the courtesy resignations of Menardo Guevarra as Solicitor General and J. Prospero de Vera III as CHEd chair, he added.

As to the national security adviser, Bersamin said Eduardo Año’s courtesy resignation was directly sent to the President.

“I do not know yet because that is a personal thing for the President. He’s the national security adviser and actually, that resignation letter was not coursed through me. They have a personal thing and if the President does not want to accept it, it’s up to him,” Bersamin noted.

Credentials

Earlier in the day, the President administered the oath of office to Berberabe, who until her new appointment served as dean of the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Law. She is the second woman to head the Office of the Solicitor General after Agnes Devanadera.

Berberabe’s appointment effectively removes her from the list of applicants for associate justice of the Supreme Court.

Her earlier stint in government was as chief executive officer of Pag-Ibig Fund from 2010 to 2017.

A philosophy major, Berberabe graduated summa cum laude from UP and was valedictorian of the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy’s Class of 1989.

In 2023, she became the UP Law dean, returning to the institution where she earned her law degree in 1999.

Berberabe joined Baker McKenzie as an associate lawyer specializing in labor law, and later worked for Procter & Gamble as senior counsel for six years.

She is the widow of the late professional basketball player Samboy Lim and the mother of athlete and 2019 Southeast Asian Games gold medalist Jamie Lim.

In March this year, the Inquirer named her one of the paper’s “Women of Power” awardees for 2025 in recognition of her achievements.

Seasoned educator

Speaker Martin Romualdez on Thursday welcomed Berberabe’s selection as Solicitor General, describing her as “highly qualified to lead the government’s legal team amid complex constitutional issues and high-stakes cases that require sharp, independent counsel.”

The President on Thursday also administered the oath of office to Jose Ramon Aliling, who took over the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development following the reassignment of Jose Acuzar as Presidential Adviser for Pasig River Development.

Agrupis, the new CHEd chief, is a seasoned educator and researcher and former president of the Mariano Marcos State University (MMSU) in Ilocos Norte. She first joined CHEd as commissioner in September 2024.

Duterte arrest

Agrupis earned her Bachelor of Science in Biology degree, graduating cum laude, from the MMSU and is the first MMSU alumna to be the school’s president.

Among her other accolades were as outstanding alumna of UP Los Baños, the William D. Dar Research Leadership Award given by the Philippine Association of Research Managers, and the Presidential Lingkod Bayan regional award, which she received in 2020 and 2024.

Bersamin said he believed Guevarra’s decision not to defend the government in the petitions challenging the March 11 arrest of ex-President Rodrigo Duterte at the Supreme Court was not a factor in the President’s decision.

He conceded there was a strong clamor for Guevarra’s removal at that time, but said Mr. Marcos spoke with Guevarra and respected the latter’s “ethical decision to recuse.”

“If there was a reservation about his professionalism at that time, the President could have already removed him. But the President continued to repose trust in him. So, up to the decision to accept his resignation, Guevarra was still there,” Bersamin said.

As to De Vera, Bersamin noted that the outgoing CHEd chair was already on his second term, having been first appointed by then President Duterte in 2018. —WITH REPORTS FROM JANE BAUTISTA AND KRIXIA SUBINGSUBING