President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Thursday he would only appoint a Health Secretary if the country’s situation had already returned to normal in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.
He also said he will only leave his concurrent post as Agriculture Secretary when structural changes to the department have been made.
The Chief Executive also made his first appointments to the judiciary, naming two trial court judges as associate justices of the Court of Appeals, and the head of the Supreme Court’s Fiscal Management and Budget Office as an associate justice of the Court of Tax Appeals.
On the sidelines of the Philippine Business Conference at the Manila Hotel, Marcos was asked when he planned to appoint a Department of Health (DOH) secretary amid the continuing threat of the pandemic.
“We will wait for it to get there (normal situation), and then we will normalize also the reorganization of government,” Mr. Marcos told reporters. “When that happens, when what I just explained happens. The same as DA (Department of Agriculture), when it’s fixed, and (the situation is) normalized.”
“The reason (for this) is I want people to understand that this is the government’s work, not everything is a crisis, so let’s normalize the work of the government,” he added.
“That is what I am trying to do, so that everyday functions are fulfilled, every day without fuss, without bother, without gulo (mess), without fixers, without paying, that’s what I’m fixing. So that is what I am hoping to get to that point, especially in the DOH and DA,” the President said.
At present, Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire is the Health department’s officer-in-charge.
In September, Mr. Marcos extended the state of calamity throughout the Philippines due to COVID-19 until December 31, 2022.
The President also told reporters that problems within the Department of Agriculture are so difficult that “it will take a president to change and turn it around.”
“So, I think when we are able to say that the DA’s functions are properly institutionalized and the structural changes that we need to make in the DA have been made and the appointments in the DA have already been made, then saka ako bibitaw [I will let go],” he said.
“Because then they don’t need me anymore, they don’t need the President heading the department,” Mr. Marcos added.
Meanwhile, in a transmittal letter to Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo, the President appointed as CA associate justices Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judges Selma Palacio Alaras and Wilhelmina B. Jorge Wagan.
Alaras and Wagan took over the posts vacated by retired CA Associate Justices Gabriel T. Ingles and Edgardo A. Camello, respectively.
Appointed CTA associate justice was SC-FBMO Chief Corazon G. Ferrer-Flores who took over the post vacated by Associate Justice Juanito C. Castaneda.
The three new members of the appellate courts took their oaths of office before Chief Justice Gesmundo late Wednesday afternoon, Oct 19.
Their appointment papers were transmitted to Chief Justice Gesmundo by Executive Secretary Lucas P. Bersamin. The transmittal letters were dated Oct. 11, 2022.
The President appointed the two CA associate justices from among the 13 nominees named by the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) in a letter sent last July 8.
There were 10 JBC nominees to the vacant Tax Appeals court post.
The JBC nominations were signed by Chief Justice Gesmundo as ex officio chairperson; Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin C. Remulla, ex officio member; and Jose Catral Mendoza, Toribio E. Ilao Jr., Noel Gimenez Tijam and Franklin J. Demonteverde as members.
The JBC is the constitutional office that accepts, screens, and nominates appointments in the judiciary. Under the Constitution, the President has 90 days to fill up a vacant post.
