Marcos Jr.’s Cabinet Courtesy Resignations: A Bold and Strategic Reset

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🕓 Last Updated: May 25, 2025, 1:47 pm (PH time)

President Marcos Jr.’s Cabinet courtesy resignations call isn’t chaos. Rather, it is a calculated governance reset designed to build public trust, encourage reform, and distinguish his leadership from the past administration.

On May 22, 2025, President Marcos Jr. asked for the courtesy resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, making way for what he described as a “government reset.” The move came after what analysts observed as a “tough midterm election season” that mirrored shifting political allegiances and falling administration approval ratings. The grand gesture, though, is more than a symbolic action—it’s a calculated governance strategy meant to align executive performance with public expectations and political realities.

In the ensuing days after this daring declaration, other Cabinet-level personnel have continued to submit their courtesy resignations, a sign that the shake-up continues and is likely to reach even further. Through this writing, 38 Cabinet officials have resigned.

Political Context and Trigger Points

The Senate saw significant gains by opposition and Duterte-aligned candidates in the 2025 midterm elections, upending the President’s legislative base. While Vice President Sara Duterte’s popularity rating remained strong at 59%, the President’s trust ratings fell from 42% to 25% at the same time.

These developments, indeed, created a strategic necessity for internal recalibration and refocusing. Rather than risking further erosion of public confidence, President Marcos Jr. made his daring choice: a top-to-bottom reassessment of his team. And this is superbly strategic to lay out his political maneuver to achieve more and better toward the end of his term, hopefully.

Speaker Martin Romualdez and the House of Representatives have expressed full support for the realignment, positioning the move as a reaffirmation of democratic governance, not a power consolidation.

The Strategic Implications of Courtesy Resignations

  1. A Culture of Accountability

Simplistically, or in all common senses, courtesy resignations emphasize, if not at least, reinforce the basic concept that public service is a privilege, not a right. By subjecting or even compelling all members of the Cabinet to submit their mandate for reconsideration, President Marcos Jr. only enforces a performance-based governance mindset. This move by the president shows a clear deviation from the culture of political recycling, which was, apparently, prevalent in previous administrations.

  1. A Mechanism for Merit-Based Appointments

This is a step that paves the way for a larger group of possible public servants—those with expertise, reform-minded vision, and experience in local governance. It allows the president to form a more nimble, less political cabinet and one that is responsive to the changing needs of the Filipino nation.

  1. An Institutional Confidence Builder

The reset signals decisiveness and flexibility. During an era when governance credibility is in jeopardy, demonstrating a willingness to revisit even the top officials builds trust and makes clear that the administration takes performance and accountability seriously.

  1. Strategic Policy Realignment

This action enables the President to repurpose the executive agenda, especially foreign policy, inflation control, digital government, and national security. In a post-pandemic and geopolitically unpredictable context, adaptability and refocusing are crucial.

Opposition and Duterte Bloc: Criticisms and Contradictions

It is notable to mention the expected criticism from Duterte-allied groups and certain partisan opposition commentators. While criticism within a healthy democracy is warranted, it has to be based on equity and fact.

Comparatively, in the past administration under the Duterte regime, the Cabinet reshuffles and resignations were seemingly routine and usually shrouded in murky circumstances or without meaningful policy changes, so to speak. Nowadays, the Marcos Jr. government takes a refreshingly transparent and thoughtful approach: institutional, inclusive, and grounded in governance, not politics.

President Marcos Jr. is not giving ultimatums or playing favorites. He is calling out all Cabinet members to re-swear their allegiance to public service on a greater standard of accountability. The difference is not in personalities but in process.

It is ironic that some who previously justified reshuffles as indications of strength now label this effort destabilizing. This contradiction only underscores the value of principled, and not partisan, governance.

Why This Reset is Reasonable and Necessary

Whether this step will turn out to be a masterstroke or a blunder rests significantly on what comes next:

➤ Transparency in Reappointments — Will the process of selection rest more on qualifications and performance, not political expediency?
➤ Clarity in Direction — Will the reconstituted Cabinet receive a new and clear-cut policy agenda?
➤ Consistency in Standards — Will the same standards of accountability be applied across the board, irrespective of party lines?

For the moment, the Cabinet reset can be regarded as a risky political move that speaks to both risk and intention—a declaration that the administration is willing to address its own weaknesses, but also one that serves as a reminder of the stakes involved in executive recalibration.

Final Thoughts

Marcos Jr.’s Cabinet resignations can make or break his administration. While this bold move of President Marcos Jr. to request his Cabinet officials to resign out of courtesy is a sea change in the administration, it also is demeaning to other Cabinets who may either be reluctant to do so or submissive out of no choice and, at the end of the day, relieved for their post—overwhelmingly painful.

However, this Marcos administration reset shows an innovative step, a strategic reboot that paves the way for reformist leadership, lightens bureaucratic burdens, and realigns national interests; it is not exactly a political gimmick.

If done with integrity, foresight, and transparency, this government reset can be the legacy of President Marcos Jr., not just as an able leader in his own right, but also as a reformist president breaking with the governance record of both his predecessors and his namesake father. In a time when tough leadership is equated with raucous leadership, this gesture of administrative humility might be just what the country needs. ▲▼

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💬 AI Use Disclosure: This article is AI-assisted by ChatGPT (OpenAI) and is reviewed, edited, and refined by the writer and editor of The Philippine Pundit.

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