PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has rejected the courtesy resignations of Justice Secretary Crispin Remulla, Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla, and Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. but accepted those of Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra and Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairman Prospero de Vera III, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said yesterday.
The new solicitor general is Darlene Marie Berberabe, dean of the University of the Philippines College of Law, while CHED Commissioner Shirley Agrupis will take De Vera’s place.
Guevarra, in a message to media, said he is happy for Berberabe who is a “top-caliber lawyer with an impressive management background.”
“She will surely do as well as solicitor general. As for me, maybe it’s time to go back to a quiet and peaceful private life. Thank you!” he also said.
De Vera expressed gratitude to the President for being allowed to pursue and continue programs and initiatives he started during the previous administration.
“After almost seven years of leading the Commission on Higher Education, I respectfully accept the decision of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to end my term as chairman. While I have a term of office until July 2026, I submitted my courtesy resignation pursuant to the instructions of the President,” he said in a statement released to reporters.
“I respect the President’s decision and thank him for the trust and the opportunity to continue with the educational reforms in higher education that I started when I was appointed commissioner in 2016, chairman in 2018, and under his administration,” he added.
Teodoro, in a statement, thanked the president “for his continued trust and confidence as we pursue his vision of strengthening the nation’s defense, protecting the patrimony of our archipelagic nation, and promoting regional peace and stability.”
Teodoro assumed the top DND post in June 2023, replacing then DND officer-in-charge Carlito Galvez, a former Armed Forces chief who is now Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity.
Teodoro also served as defense secretary from 2007 to 2009 during the time of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
The President last week instructed all his Cabinet secretaries, along with appointees who hold Cabinet-rank positions, to tender their courtesy resignations as he recalibrates his administration.
Bersamin, in the briefing, said Marcos has also instructed the heads of government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs) to submit their courtesy resignations and indicated that senior officials are also included in the continuing review.
The sweeping call for the courtesy resignations followed a disappointing performance in the May 12 midterm elections.
“This is not a purge,” Bersamin told the briefing, saying it was a drive by the president to improve the quality of public service.
“The president has no patience for underperformance,” he added.
The government reshuffle is widely seen as Marcos’ attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term, although there have not been wholesale changes in the two rounds announced so far.
Bersamin said many GOCC heads have submitted courtesy resignations.
“Each resignation accepted is based on a careful assessment of whether the standards set by the President for efficiency and leadership have been met. Some have delivered, others have not,” he said.
Bersamin said the President “definitely, declined” the courtesy resignations of the Remullas and Teodoro who had all been part of the operation that led to the arrest of former President Rodrigo Duterte in March and his turnover to the International Criminal court (ICC) where he is facing charges of crime against humanity.
Asked about the fate of National Security Adviser Eduardo Año, who was also part of the group that handled Duterte’s arrest, Bersamin said in mixed Filipino and English, “That is a personal thing for the President. That is the security adviser and actually that resignation letter was not coursed through me.”
Año served as Duterte’s interior secretary.
‘FRESH BLOOD’
On Guevarra and De Vera, Bersamin said they had long held their posts. They were appointed when Marcos assumed the presidency in 2022.
Guevarra served as justice secretary under the Duterte government while De Vera was retained in his position as CHED chairman. He served as commissioner and later as CHED chairman under Duterte.
Bersamin said the President may have wanted some “fresh blood” in the Office of the Solicitor general and the CHED, thus the new appointments.
“SolGen Guevarra has been there since the beginning and maybe it is time for him to go to another venture. And so, the President accepted his resignation to allow for fresh blood to come in,” he said.
TRUST
Bersamin said Guevarra’s refusal to represent government in a case filed by Duterte’s children against the administration in connection with the arrest had nothing to do with the acceptance of his resignation.
He said there has been a clamor for Guevarra’s termination after his recusal, but “he and the President had a conversation about this, and the President respected his 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, Solicitor General Guevarra was still there,” he added.
In De Vera’s case, Bersamin said he could not say if recent “intramurals” in the CHED was a factor in his replacement. He did not elaborate on the “intramurals.”
“As far as I know, although this is not the official reason, you know CHED Chair de Vera has been there for two terms already, this is his second term. Maybe the President wanted to give a fresh start to the CHED or maybe there were other reasons,” he said.
Berberabe will be the second woman to become solicitor general after Agnes Devanadera who served from March 2007 to January 2010.
Berberabe was among those recently interviewed by the Judicial and Bar Council for the position of Supreme Court associate justice. She graduated summa cum laude from UP with a Philosophy degree in 1989.
The President has so far accepted the courtesy resignations of Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo, Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla, Environment Secretary Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga, and Human Settlements chief Jose Rizalino Acuzar.
He rejected the resignations of Bersamin and the economic team — Trade Secretary Cristina Roque, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto, and Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman and Special Assistant to the President for Investment and Economic Affairs Secretary Frederick Go.
Marcos has reappointed Manalo, this time as ambassador to the United Nations, Lotilla as environment secretary, and Acuzar as presidential adviser with rank of secretary.
JOCKEYING
Incoming senator Panfilo Lacson urged Marcos to “act quickly” on the resignations of his Cabinet to “avoid possible inefficiency and divisiveness in the ranks.”
Lacson, on Wednesday night, said he received information that there has been “jockeying for positions” to fill up the Cabinet, with some even resorting to “foul means.”
“An unsolicited advice: the President should act quickly on the pending courtesy resignations, The season for jockeying for positions has intensified with the usual circulation of ‘white papers’ and floating of names of ‘applicants’ to fill some still ‘unvacated posts,’” he said in a post on X.
“Uncertainty often leads to inefficiency and divisiveness in the ranks,” he added.
More than recalibrating his administration, Lacson earlier said Marcos must exercise his persuasive powers over Congress to end indiscriminate insertions and pork barrel in the 2026 national budget.
Lacson also pushed for the integration of “ayudas” or financial support programs under the Pantwaid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) in the National Expenditure Program (NEP), the proposed budget measure the executive will submit to Congress.
“With the President taking the lead in at least tempering the insatiable greed of some legislators, I vow to do my share in helping him come up with a national budget that is truly responsive to the people’s clamor for sanity and a little timidity among the members of Congress in addressing the needs of their constituents,” he added. – Wirth Ashzel Hachero, Peter Tabingo, Victor Reyes, Raymond Africa, and Reuters
