I share Peter Wallace’s view that the Cabinet selection by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has been impeccable (“A positive first step,” 07/11/22).
On the one hand, Article VII, Section 16 of the 1987 Constitution says that the President “shall nominate and, with the consent of the Commission on Appointments, appoint the heads of the executive departments, ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, or officers of the armed forces from the rank of colonel or naval captain, and other officers whose appointments are vested in him in this Constitution.”
On the other hand, Book IV, Chapter 10, Section 44 of Executive Order No. 292, otherwise known as the Administrative Code of 1987, stipulates that secretaries of departments “shall be appointed by the President with the consent of the Commission on Appointments, at the beginning of his term of office, and shall hold office, unless sooner removed, until the expiration of his term of office, or until their successors shall have been appointed and qualified.”
Having said this, President Marcos Jr.’s right to choose who gets to join him in his Cabinet and serve at his pleasure. Certainly, he only entrusts these Cabinet posts to those fittest and worthy to hold public office in his administration.
The President named probably the best and the brightest technocrats, with their immense knowledge and proven performance in bureaucracy and governance, to form and constitute the Cabinet of the executive department of his administration.
Indeed, the selection of the Cabinet of the President’s administration got off to a good start.
REGINALD B. TAMAYO,Marikina City,reginaldtamayo@yahoo.com