MANILA: Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. called on his cabinet members on Thursday to render their resignations in a move seen as an attempt to address the public\u2019s dissatisfaction over his administration\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n
Marcos, the son of a late Philippine dictator overthrown in 1986, won the presidency by a landslide in 2022 after campaigning on a vision of national unity and portraying himself as a candidate for change.<\/p>\n
But public support for the 67-year-old leader has faced a steep decline this year, with surveys by Pulse Asia showing his approval rating with voters dropping to 25 percent in March from 42 percent in February.<\/p>\n
Marcos\u2019 latest move comes after his allies failed to secure a majority of contested Senate seats at the May 12 midterm elections, raising questions over the president\u2019s weakened mandate in the remaining three years of his term, which ends in 2028.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s time to realign government with the people\u2019s expectations,\u201d Marcos said in a statement issued by his office on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not business as usual \u2026 The people have spoken, and they expect results \u2014 not politics, not excuses. We hear them, and we will act.\u201d<\/p>\n
The call for courtesy resignations \u2014 described as a \u201cbold reset\u201d \u2014 marks \u201ca clear transition\u201d to a \u201cmore focused and performance-driven approach,\u201d the statement reads.<\/p>\n
At least 21 cabinet secretaries have either immediately submitted their resignations or expressed their readiness to do so.<\/p>\n
The midterm elections were \u201creflective of the true desire and sentiments of the people on the ground,\u201d said Froilan Calilung, political science professor at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a massive decrease in his numbers, and this could be attributed to the fact that there are no concrete measures, programs, or policies that can be attributed to his government for at least the past two or three years,\u201d he told Arab News.<\/p>\n
Pulse Asia\u2019s survey in March also showed the majority of Filipinos expressing disapproval of the Marcos administration on issues seen as most urgent, including controlling inflation and fighting corruption, which stood at 79 percent and 53 percent, respectively.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think what the president is trying to do right now is to salvage whatever is left of his political capital before he enters the lame-duck phase of his administration, which could happen anywhere between the fourth and the fifth year of his term of office,\u201d Calilung said. <\/p>\n
By calling for the resignations of his cabinet secretaries, Marcos may also be seeking to \u201cshake off the stigma\u201d of himself as a weak and indecisive leader and trying to project an \u201cimage of somebody who is in charge or is in control\u201d of the situation, he added. <\/p>\n
Though it will be hard to recover after the \u201cwasted\u201d first three years of his presidency, there was still a chance that Marcos could make a comeback.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe president should come up with better legislation, more well-meaning policies and programs that will directly address the current conditions of the current problems of inflation, job security, food security, agrarian self-sufficiency, among others,\u201d Calilung said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the president will be able to do these things, then I think there\u2019s still some time to recover.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MANILA: Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. called on his cabinet members on Thursday to render their resignations in a move seen as an attempt to address the public\u2019s dissatisfaction over his administration\u2019s performance. Marcos, the son of a late Philippine dictator overthrown in 1986, won the presidency by a landslide in 2022 after campaigning on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480150,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-480136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n