Marcos orders Cabinet resignations after midterm polls signal weakened mandate
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr speaks during a campaign rally ahead of the elections in Philippines on May 9. PHOTO: REUTERS
MANILA – Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has ordered the resignation of his entire Cabinet, just over a week after less than favourable midterm election results that analysts say weakened his grip on power.
'This is not business as usual,' Mr Marcos said in a statement on May 22. 'The people have spoken, and they expect results – not politics, not excuses.'
Though framed as a managerial reset, Mr Marcos's call for Cabinet resignations comes on the heels of the May 12 midterm polls, which signalled a realignment of political loyalties amid his deepening feud with Vice-President Sara Duterte.
Several of the president's endorsed Senate candidates suffered defeats, while Duterte-aligned figures and independent opposition bets made surprise gains, highlighting fractures within the ruling coalition. The results also raised questions about Mr Marcos' weakened mandate in the last three years of his term that ends in 2028.
The Duterte camp appeared to gain momentum during the campaign season after former president Rodrigo Duterte, father of the vice-president, was arrested on March 11 on crimes against humanity charges tied to an International Criminal Court (ICC) probe into his bloody war on drugs.
Mr Duterte himself won the midterms race for mayor of Davao City in the southern Philippines, a post he held for over two decades before becoming president in 2016. How he will govern while in the ICC's custody in The Hague remains unclear.
Adding fuel to speculation of a deepening rift within the Marcos government, Solicitor-General Menardo Guevarra – who is tasked with representing the government in international legal cases – refused to defend the Philippines before the ICC in Mr Duterte's case.
Mr Guevarra once served as Mr Duterte's justice secretary. His decision has been interpreted by some as a sign of conflicting loyalties within the upper ranks of the Marcos administration.
'This is not about personalities – it's about performance, alignment, and urgency,' Mr Marcos said in his May 22 statement. 'Those who have delivered and continue to deliver will be recognized. But we cannot afford to be complacent. The time for comfort zones is over.'
Following the announcement, the presidential palace assured Filipinos that government services will not be disrupted amid the resignations. The next highest-ranking official in each government agency is expected to serve as acting secretary until Mr Marcos reinstates the Cabinet member or appoints a replacement.
Mr Marcos has not given a timeline for deciding who stays or goes, but said meritocracy and urgency would guide the reshuffle. Several Cabinet officials have already started tendering their resignations at past 9am on May 22, saying they serve at the pleasure of the president and will follow his orders.
While Philippine presidents have called for sweeping Cabinet resignations before, such moves usually followed political crises.
In 1987, then-president Corazon Aquino asked for her Cabinet's resignations to reassert authority after a series of coup attempts, just a year after the bloodless revolution that ousted the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr—father of the incumbent president.
In 2005, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo made a similar call in the wake of an election fraud scandal, leading to a major reshuffle in her Cabinet.
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