Amid possible changes by PBBM

DEPUTY Speaker and Batangas Representative Ralph G. Recto on Saturday said Cabinet members are not “forever” to their positions, explaining they are just casuals who can be “endo” anytime.

Recto made the statement with the possible “shake-up” of the Marcos administration’s Cabinet members.

“The President has the power to hire and fire. A Cabinet member is just the highest paid casual employee in his department,” Recto stressed.

“As such, puwede ma-endo anytime. Walang forever. In this country, a Cabinet or any presidential appointment has a short life span,” Recto explained.

“And if there is anyone who knows of the Cabinet members’ performance, it is the President himself, their immediate superior. He sees them work up close and personal, so he is the best judge of character, not the hecklers in the peanut gallery,” Recto said.

In fact, Recto said, “it is his duty, to effect personnel changes when his alter ego falters or fails in his work.”

Recto said the people will suffer if the President allows his incompetent people to stay.

“Because when it happens, it is the people who will be punished by mediocrity. Sa basketball nga may substitution. When the ax falls, there is no room for sentimentality,” he said.

The Batangas House leader and former senator said he believes President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. (PBBM) will keep in his Cabinet those who have been performing very well.

“I believe that the President will let competence, not connections, guide his hiring decisions. After all, he had the best mentor on this matter, in fact a legacy he carries, and that is how his father assembled his own Cabinet, which overall was a stellar cast of experts and professionals,” Recto added.

Earlier, House Minority Leader and 4Ps Party-list Rep. Marcelino “Nonoy” Libanan urged President Marcos Jr. to appoint Cabinet members who are ready to serve for five years, with no plans to run for office in 2025.

President Marcos’ decision to shake up his Cabinet has been welcomed by Libanan, who said the Chief Executive should preferably pick new department secretaries who are ready to serve for the next five years.

Cagayan de Oro City 2nd District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez urged President Marcos Jr. to resist the temptation of appointing or recycling candidates who lost in the May 2022 elections.

He made the appeal as the one-year ban on the appointment of election “losers” has expired.

He said if the President now fills vacant Cabinet jobs, “it should not be because of the lapse of the one-year appointment ban but because there is (a) real need for full-time Cabinet members, including one at the Department of Agriculture (DA), which is temporarily headed by the Chief Executive himself.”