Malacañang on Thursday assured the public that the ongoing shakeup of Cabinet secretaries in the Marcos administration will not disrupt the implementation of ongoing projects and overall public services.
“President Marcos made it clear that all pending and existing government initiatives will continue uninterrupted. Cabinet secretaries and public servants remain hard at work,” Castro said at a press briefing.
“This is an opportunity for our agency heads to show their alignment with the President’s goals and demonstrate why they deserve to remain in their posts,” she added.
The reassurance comes a day after President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. called on all Cabinet members to submit courtesy resignations, signaling a major performance review and potential reshuffle in his administration.
The decision, according to Castro, aims to speed up delivery of government services and root out underperforming or possibly corrupt officials. “This is not just about performance,” she said.
“The review will also look into whether there are any corruption issues in how agencies are being managed,” Castro added. “There is no space for the lazy and corrupt in the administration of President Marcos, Jr.”
The shake-up follows the administration’s disappointing results in the recent midterm elections, where it failed to achieve its target number of Senate seats.
Castro said the President took the results as a message from the public. “He believes the people expected more from the government,” she said.
“Although we didn’t hit our goals—particularly in the Senate—the President sees this as a reason to accelerate improvements,” Castro added.
Asked if the administration had been aiming for a 12–0 Senate sweep, Castro simply said, “That would have been better.”
While the President has not yet announced who will be retained or removed, Castro emphasized that decisions would be made swiftly.
“As we’ve seen with the President’s recent actions, he prefers quick resolutions. We can expect prompt decisions,” she said.
Castro also clarified that the Office of the Solicitor General is included among the offices required to submit a courtesy resignation, confirming its status as part of the Cabinet-level review.
Details on who will comprise the review committee have not yet been released. The matter, Castro noted, is being handled by the Office of the Executive Secretary.
When asked whether the resignations are targeting specific officials, Castro responded that no individuals have been singled out as of now.
The move has sparked comparisons to President Marcos’s recent remarks about shifting from being respected to being feared.
Castro dismissed the idea that a “disciplinarian” or external enforcer is needed within the administration.
“The President himself is the disciplinarian,” she said. “This is about clean and efficient governance, and the President is fully capable of leading that effort,” Castro added.
Asked whether the decision to reshuffle top government officials was due to the recent results of the midterm elections, Castro said the review of Cabinet Secretaries’ performance had been under consideration long before the election period.
“From the beginning of my appointment as press officer, we said any needed revamps would be based on performance,” she said.
“Some officials were already removed even before the elections. The results simply reinforced the urgency,” Castro added.