Philippines’ Marcos orders Cabinet to resign after midterm polls dent political clout
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Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr at a campaign rally in Mandaluyong City on May 9, ahead of midterm polls in the Philippines.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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MANILA – Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has ordered the resignation of his entire Cabinet, just over a week after less than favourable midterm election results
“This is not business as usual,” Mr Marcos said in a statement on May 22. “The people have spoken and they expect results – not politics, not excuses.”
Though framed as a managerial reset, Mr Marcos’ call for Cabinet resignations comes on the heels of the May 12 midterm polls, which signalled a realignment of political loyalties amid his deepening feud with Vice-President Sara Duterte.
Several of Mr Marcos’ endorsed Senate candidates suffered defeats, while Duterte-aligned figures and independent opposition bets made surprise gains, highlighting fractures within the ruling coalition. The results also raised questions about his weakened mandate in the last three years of his term, which ends in 2028.
The midterm results are also crucial as senators will soon be sitting as judges in the upcoming impeachment trial of Vice-President Duterte. In February, Marcos-allied lawmakers sought to remove her from office over the alleged misuse of public funds and threats to assassinate the President, First Lady Louise Araneta-Marcos and House Speaker Martin Romualdez, Mr Marcos’ cousin.
The impeachment trial was initially set for July, but Senate president Francis Escudero said the first hearing will be held on June 3 – in a statement he released just minutes before Mr Marcos’ office announced the Cabinet resignation order on May 22.
The Duterte camp appeared to gain momentum during the campaign season after former president Rodrigo Duterte, father of the Vice-President, was arrested on March 11 on crimes against humanity charges tied to an International Criminal Court (ICC) probe into his bloody war on drugs.
Mr Duterte himself won the midterm race for mayor of Davao City
Adding fuel to speculation of a deepening rift within the Marcos government, Solicitor-General Menardo Guevarra – who is tasked with representing the government in international legal cases – refused to defend the Philippines before the ICC in Mr Duterte’s case.
Mr Guevarra once served as Mr Duterte’s justice secretary. His decision has been interpreted by some as a sign of conflicting loyalties within the upper ranks of the Marcos administration.
“This is not about personalities – it’s about performance, alignment and urgency,” Mr Marcos said in his May 22 statement. “Those who have delivered and continue to deliver will be recognised. But we cannot afford to be complacent. The time for comfort zones is over.”
Following the announcement, the presidential palace assured Filipinos that government services will not be disrupted amid the resignations. The next highest-ranking official in each government agency is expected to serve as acting secretary until Mr Marcos reinstates the Cabinet member or appoints a replacement.
Mr Marcos has not given a timeline for deciding who stays or goes, but said meritocracy and urgency will guide the reshuffle. Several Cabinet officials already started tendering their resignations at past 9am on May 22, saying they serve at the pleasure of the President and will follow his orders.
While Philippine presidents have called for sweeping Cabinet resignations before, such moves usually followed political crises.
In 1987, then President Corazon Aquino asked for her Cabinet to resign to reassert authority after a series of coup attempts, just a year after the bloodless revolution that ousted the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr – father of the incumbent president.
In 2005, Ms Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo made a similar call in the wake of an election fraud scandal, leading to a major Cabinet reshuffle.
The resignation order is a way for Mr Marcos to reassert control while also acknowledging that Filipinos have expressed their discontent over his administration’s performance through the results of the midterm elections, Dr Aries Arugay, visiting senior fellow at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, told The Straits Times.
“I think he is really asserting command responsibility. He believed that the midterm election results were a sounding rebuke, if not disapproval, of his government’s performance,” Dr Arugay said.
It is about time the President revamped his Cabinet, which has yet to craft a flagship programme that better defines the Marcos presidency, political analyst Froilan Calilung at the Manila-based University of Santo Tomas told local news channel ANC.
“There should be some kind of recalibration that must be made insofar as the dynamics, functionalities and performance of his Cabinet is concerned,” Dr Calilung said on May 22. “The President is trying to salvage whatever political capital may be left of him.”
Dr Arugay believes Mr Marcos could also use the Cabinet resignation order as a way to gain favour from senators who will be deciding on Ms Duterte’s impeachment.
“He might rely on some senators for names of the new Cabinet members in exchange for a conviction in the impeachment of Sara Duterte,” Dr Arugay said. “Cabinet appointments are a major source of presidential patronage”.
