Angara says he will not resign without Marcos’ order

Education Secretary Sonny Angara on Thursday said that he will not step down from his post as long as President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. is not asking him to do so.

Angara said he will continue serving the education department unless the President himself asks him to resign.

"Well, we cabinet secretaries only serve what's said at the will of the President. We serve at the will of the President, at the pleasure of the President," Angara said in an ambush interview on the sidelines of the ceremonial turnover of laptops at Rizal Elementary School in Taguig City.

"So as long as the President needs us to help our countrymen, we're there," the DepEd chief added.

On Wednesday, Malacañang denied that Angara and Information and Communications Technology Secretary Henry Aguda are on their way out of the Marcos administration.

In a briefing, Castro refuted the claims, saying both Angara and Aguda attended the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) meeting at Malacañang.

"We deny this because they were with us at yesterday's LEDAC meeting. They also presented their projects in a private meeting with the President. So, we denied [the information about their departure]," Castro said.

An online news site, citing an unnamed source, said that the two officials are supposedly at risk of losing their posts in the Marcos Cabinet.

Angara, a former senator, dismissed suggestions that he should step down from his post after he was linked to the kickbacks derived from fund insertions during his time as chair of the Senate Committee on Finance.

He said he will not resign from his post amid allegations linking him to alleged anomalous government flood control projects, noting that the allegations are baseless and are not supported by any evidence.