The powerful Commission on Appointment will bypass the ad interim appointment of Erwin Tulfo as secretary of the Department of the Social Welfare and Development, Senate President Juan Miguel "Migz" Zubiri said Monday.

"We will just continue with the hearings next year due to the lack of material time. Maybe it will take a whole day for us to tackle the legal issues on his appointment," said Zubiri, who also chairs the CA.
"If he gets bypassed this year, he will have to be reappointed by the president," he added.

Tulfo along with the other 14 appointees of the president were bypassed by the CA due to the lack of material time.

Zubiri pointed out that the CA will need to study the few issues hounding Tulfo's appointment, particularly about his citizenship and his libel conviction.

He noted that Tulfo has yet to provide sufficient proof that he already renounced his US citizenship.

To recall, the younger brother of Senator Raffy Tulfo admitted that he acquired his American citizenship in the 1980s and only renounced it in early 2022 before he was appointed by the president.

Likewise, Zubiri stressed that the CA will need to study Tulfo's conviction over a libel case which he said was already affirmed by the Supreme Court in 2008.

Citing the Ty-Delgado v. HRET (26 January 2016), Zubiri said that the conviction of Tulfo over a libel case will fall under a crime involving moral turpitude.