President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. may need to act quickly on the pending courtesy resignations of his Cabinet members to avoid possible inefficiency and divisiveness in the ranks, Senator-elect Ping Lacson said.
Lacson said that since the President ordered the courtesy resignations, there has been jockeying for positions in the Cabinet, with some 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 up some still ‘unvacated posts’,” he said in a post on X.
“Uncertainty often leads to inefficiency and divisiveness in the ranks.”
“Uncertainty often leads to inefficiency and divisiveness in the ranks,” the veteran legislator added.
The President has so far accepted the resignations of at least two out of 52 Cabinet officials who submitted their courtesy resignations – Ambassador Antonio Lagdameo, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and Environment Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo Loyzaga.
However, he has retained key members of his economic team, citing the need to sustain financial stability. Some members of the Cabinet were also reassigned to other posts.
Lacson earlier stressed that the President, more than recalibrating his administration, must exercise his persuasive powers over Congress to end indiscriminate insertions and pork barrel in the 2026 budget.
Also, he pushed for the integration of “ayuda” programs under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) in the National Expenditure Program, the proposed budget bill Malacanang 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,” Lacson concluded.
