Marcos: Sara to be DepEd chief

MANILA, Philippines — Presumptive president Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has chosen his running mate, presumptive vice president Sara Duterte-Carpio, to be the next secretary of the Department of Education.

In a brief statement to the media after a closed-door meeting with his transition team yesterday afternoon, Marcos announced his pick for the education department.

“I think I am already authorized to announce the first nominee that we will be giving to the Commission on Appointments when the time comes, should I be proclaimed (as president) – and that is, that our incoming vice president has agreed to take the brief of the Department of Education,” Marcos said.

Marcos did not take any questions from the media after giving his statement, but assured them that he will be giving updates “in the next few days about what’s going on” in his team’s planning amid his imminent victory in the presidential race.

“ So, I talked to Inday Sara. I asked her if she can take on the job, because being the secretary of education is a very tough job, and she agreed to take it. I think it is because she’s a mother and she wants to make sure that her children are well-trained and well-educated and that’s the best motivation that we can hope for,” Marcos said in English and Filipino.

Marcos earlier bared that Duterte-Carpio would want to be the secretary of defense should their tandem assume the presidency and vice presidency, respectively.

Meanwhile, Marcos said he is open to include in his would-be Cabinet several experts and personalities “regardless of political leanings.”

“I will continue to be guided by the [person’s] competence and willingness to work with the next administration. We remove immediately what their political leanings have been. Kung lumaban ba sa atin, kung sumama ba sa atin [Whether they used to oppose us or they used to be with us], that’s not going to be part of the discussion,” Marcos said.

Marcos, however, said he intends to keep the core group of people who ran his campaign.

“The process we have established is that I am keeping our execom (executive committee) who ran the campaign. Sila talaga ang mga adviser ko [They were really my advisers].They will be the core group. But each department, we have to talk to specialists in that discipline or that sector,” Marcos said.

Marcos added that as early as now, his execom is already discussing who would be appointed in key positions in the executive department, particularly those who would be part of his economic team.

“My intention is to hit the ground running, so that we are already [with possible appointees] if ever we would be proclaimed later this month... As I’m sure you can imagine, the economic managers are going to be critical for the next several years because of the pandemic and the economic crisis. So, that is something that we are looking at very carefully,” Marcos said.

“I am also guided by the critical areas that we talk about during the campaign – of course the economy, price of energy, lack of jobs, education, infrastructure, all of these areas that are going to be critical in the next few years,” he added.