‘Char-tesy’ resignation

The President’s courtesy resignation call is supposedly a decisive move to recalibrate his administration following the results of the midterm polls. This is something that the Palace itself has admitted amidst mounting pressure to respond to his trust and approval ratings, which have suffered a surprisingly steep decline after the government arrested former president Rodrigo Duterte.

In fact, based on the findings of Pulse Asia’s March 2025 Ulat ng Bayan survey, his approval rating sharply fell by 17 percent from 42 percent in February to 25 percent in March. His disapproval rating on the other hand increased to 53 percent from 32 percent. Meanwhile, those of the Vice President have steadily grown with her approval rating increasing from 52 percent to 59 percent; and her disapproval rating dipping from 26 percent to 16 percent.

With this development, exacerbated by the pitiful showing of the senatorial administration ticket in the recent elections, it really makes sense why the chief executive should pursue a cabinet revamp, which incidentally, he is allowed to do.

Under the law, the President being an appointing authority has the power to decide whom he should appoint and fire. Except for the heads of the constitutional commissions and the members of the judiciary, who may only be removed through impeachment, he can practically weed out anyone he no longer trusts or who could no longer perform as expected.

This is why more than an effort to recalibrate his administration, the move I feel is also part of a loyalty-check mechanism that is needed to make sure that everyone in his cabinet is on the same page as he is.

Note that PBBM has only three years left in office, the last of which is even deemed insignificant as he is expected to become a lameduck by then. It is crucial, therefore, for him to sit down, assess and evaluate what he has so far done as President. If he were to leave a lasting legacy and of course restore the Marcos name, he should remove those who are no longer performing or those currently embroiled in several controversies, which his administration doesn’t need.

However, I highly suspect he may also primordially target those still loyal to the Dutertes. It is no secret that in 2022, the chief executive had appointed quite a number of cabinet members who are identified with or at the very least deemed allies of the former President. In fact, Solicitor General Guevarra is one of those. He was a former member of Duterte’s cabinet but has continued to serve under the new administration, this time as Solicitor General.

Sometime early this year, his office had recused itself from the habeas corpus petitions filed by Duterte’s children who seek his release and return from The Hague, Netherlands due to their allegation that his arrest was unlawful. He said the OSG “may not be able to effectively represent respondent Government” because of its firm stance that the International Criminal Court has no jurisdiction over the Philippines. This, of course, prompted the Palace to say Guevarra should “assess if he is still capable of acting as the Solicitor General.”

To be honest, even prior to the recent elections, the President, one by one, had been subtly removing certain officials sympathetic to the former chief executive due to the breakup of UniTeam. This is understandable considering “trust and confidence” are the main reasons why he appoints people in the first place.

Now that he is in the second half of his term, he needs to do some purging in the interest of self-preservation. But why not simply remove those he no longer wants to be part of his team? Why resort to calling for courtesy resignation instead?

The answer is obvious. If he would just remove them, it will leave a bad taste in the mouth as it may be seen as outright politically motivated. The President can no longer further divide the people as he knows he would be on the losing end. The Dutertes remain a force to reckon with, while the yellow-pink community would not in any way be loyal to him. With a cabinet revamp, at least he can demonstrate a semblance of legitimacy brought about by the need to start with a clean slate for the remaining half of his presidency.

Besides, in order for the President to maintain his control over both houses of Congress, he needs to remain popular. In a system where political parties are almost insignificant as they just exist for convenience, these elected lawmakers would remain loyal to him for as long as he still enjoys public support.

Hopefully though, the President would truly use this exercise as an opportunity to really recalibrate the executive office, its strategies and programs within the next three years. If he improves on the delivery of basic services and helps ameliorate the living conditions of the people, his constituents wouldn’t care less even if his main motivation in doing this is political.