PRESIDENT Marcos Jr. yesterday said some candidates who lost in the general elections in May will be among nominees for the vacant positions in government, which include Cabinet and department head positions, when screening and selection processes start next year.
In a chance interview on the sidelines of the launch of the “Kadiwa ng Pasko” caravan in Quezon City, Marcos said he is satisfied with the performance of his appointees, including the officers-in-charge in some departments, but “these things are revisited especially every year at the end of the first year.”
“I don’t think that’s any – that’s a secret to anyone that at the end of the first year, iyung mga ibang kandidato (the other candidates), they will now join the mix of possible nominees. So, let’s be patient,” he said.
What is important now, Marcos said, is that his appointees are doing their jobs.
The one-year election ban on the appointment of a losing candidate to a government post will lapse in May 2023.
Among the Cabinet-level positions that have yet to be filled up are secretaries of the Department of Health, the Department of National Defense (DND), and the Office of the Press Secretary which are currently headed by undersecretaries and concurrent OICs Maria Rosario Vergeire, Jose Faustino, and Cheloy Garafil, respectively.
There are persistent calls for Marcos to soon appoint a secretary for the Department of Agriculture (DA), a post which he is holding.
Marcos, asked for an update on Cabinet appointments, “We just go through the process. We still have no DOH. We have not yet nominated anyone. Usec (Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario) Vergeire is doing a fine job… we are still not out of the pandemic, so we have to continue to be careful. In DA… in DND, I think I am happy with the situation as it is now. We’ll see,” he said in mixed English and Filipino.
The President, the other day, also said that he has a timetable in the DA, and there are certain things that he wants to do achieve before leaving the department.
Marcos also said he has names in mind for the DA post but did not say who they are.
