Last two years

While he may be the newest member of the Cabinet, the long years of dedicated experience in public service of former senator Francis “Tol” Tolentino and now “acting” Secretary of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) got his due recognition. He replaced ailing DOLE secretary Bienvenido Laguesma. It is not an award but the manifestation of the trust and confidence in him of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM).

Appointed and sworn into office as “acting” DOLE secretary on the same day last May 25, Tolentino was named last week as one of the three-man Cabinet caretakers of the government when PBBM flew to Kazan, Russia last June 17-19.

Before he left Manila, PBBM designated anew Executive Secretary Ralph Recto, Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado Estrella III and named Tolentino as its third member. In his most recent foreign trips, the third member used to be Education Secretary Sonny Angara.

Tolentino learned about his designation to the caretaker committee after he guested in our Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum last Wednesday. His designation to the Cabinet caretaker committee coincided with the holding of special session of Congress amid the ongoing Senate leadership challenge between feuding majority and minority blocs.

As a former senator, however, Tolentino would rather not take sides in the cantankerous leadership fight between the opposing sides of the present Senate of the 20th Congress. Many of the incumbent feuding senators were his friends and allies.

Asked to comment on the Senate brouhaha, he said: “Just follow the (Senate) rules.”

The Cabinet caretaker committee is an ad hoc body that gets activated whenever the President goes out of the country. Actually, the caretaker committee merely acts as the direct link of the President with his Cabinet members and other government officials in case his attention and actions are needed right away. With advanced technology in telecommunications, running the affairs of the country is made easy, wherever the Chief Executive is.

Thus, it is not a big deal. But barely a month being installed into office, it is quite a feat for Tolentino to be given this extra task.

After all, Tolentino previously served in a Cabinet post during the term of the late president Noynoy Aquino III as chairman of the Metro Manila Development Authority from 2010 to 2015. Before his MMDA stint, Tolentino served as mayor of Tagaytay City from 1995 to 2004, following a brief stint as officer-in-charge from 1986 to 1987 during the term of the late president Corazon Aquino.

Tolentino first got elected to the Philippine Senate in 2019 and served as Senate majority leader from 2024 to 2025 during the 19th Congress. He ran but lost in his Senate re-election bid as one of the administration-backed 12-man ticket of PBBM’s Alyansa sa Bagong Pilipinas. Tolentino, along with former interior secretary Benhur Abalos, were the senatorial candidates of PBBM’s Partido Federal ng Pilipinas.

Tolentino and Abalos, along with their three fellow Alyansa senatorial candidates from allied political parties, suffered defeat during the May 12, 2025 mid-term elections. They included former Makati mayor Abby Binay (NPC); ex-senator Manny Pacquiao (PDP-Laban) and ex-senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. (Lakas-CMD).

The defeat of the five Marcos-backed senatorial bets triggered the subsequent Cabinet revamp that prompted PBBM to replace several of them. Four days after the results of the mid-term elections came out, PBBM ordered all Cabinet-level secretaries and heads of agencies to submit their courtesy resignations.

Malacañang billed the courtesy resignations across the Cabinet as a “bold reset” to re-evaluate performance, accelerate government action and recalibrate priorities of the Marcos administration in response to the underwhelming mid-term election results. At least six Cabinet members and two sub-Cabinet officials were replaced. There were subsequent changes later in the year in other Cabinet and sub-Cabinet posts.

At the outset, PBBM expressed his intentions to tap the defeated Alyansa senatorial bets to serve in government posts as soon as the one-year ban on losing candidates being appointed in government positions. Tolentino got the first crack to be appointed to the Marcos Cabinet.

In an interview with Philippine media before he left Russia, PBBM lamely dismissed the much talked about looming new Cabinet revamp. The return of Abalos to his previous Cabinet post as secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) cropped up. Current DILG Secretary Jonvic Remulla and Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa are among those rumored to be on the way out of the Marcos Cabinet.

PBBM noted Abalos “has been there and he has been helping us in many ways, informally, privately.” The President admitted: “I’ll be very candid, I’ll be very frank with you. Of course, I want Benhur to play a more active role in government.” PBBM stopped short of saying in what capacity he would tap Abalos. Or if he would create a new Cabinet-ranked post for him.

PBBM dismissed as “counter-productive” at this stage to disturb the operations of government if every change of department head is made. “If you keep moving people around, they have to start learning their job again. And that they – we just don’t have time for that,” PBBM pointed out.

“What you are trying to promote in government is stability and the steadiness of work. And that’s part – that’s an important part of governance,” the Chief Executive stressed.

But the latest opinion surveys show a steady decline in public satisfaction of the Marcos administration.

As far as he is concerned, PBBM believes he has “a really good group of people in the Cabinet right now. And we are working well together.”

If that is so, how come PBBM has yet to submit for confirmation to the Commission on Appointments at least 10 department secretaries who he named all in “acting” capacity up to now? Does it mean PBBM still has not made up his mind yet on his own Cabinet appointees in his last two years in office?