Marcos on calls for his resignation: Why will I do that?
KUALA LUMPUR—Saying he is not the type to avoid problems, President Marcos stressed on Tuesday that he will not quit his post despite calls from his detractors to do so.
“I will not resign. Why will I do that? It’s not [in] my nature to run away from problems. What good will that do?” Mr. Marcos told Malacañang reporters at a press conference here after the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit.
He was asked to comment on criticism that his call for Cabinet secretaries and heads of government to hand in their courtesy resignations was just “for optics.”
The criticism came from former Executive Secretary Vic Rodriguez, who served under Mr. Marcos for three months in 2022.
Performance review
Last week, Rodriguez belittled the courtesy resignations, saying the President should step down instead as he is the “problem.”
On Friday, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said that he and the economic team were being retained. But there were changes: Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla took over the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and Foreign Undersecretary Tess Lazaro replaced Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo, who will serve as the country’s permanent representative to the United Nations.
Asked about other movements in the Cabinet as a result of their performance review, Mr. Marcos declined to give details for now.
“Not yet. But I will share with you, as we were doing the performance review, I don’t limit it to shortfalls in performance. I look into it and I ask, ‘Why is that the case?’ We ask the heads of agencies why,” he said.
Mr. Marcos added that he is studying the performance of government officials deeply and carefully, and his call for courtesy resignations was not just for show.
“We have to look deeper because some of them have to be moved around. In any case, we are looking at them deeply. I don’t do things just for optics, and expect to be doing a rigorous performance review,” he said.
The President called last week for all Cabinet secretaries to submit their courtesy resignation, citing the need to “recalibrate” his administration after the results of the midterm elections.
