Bold reset

Since the Alyansa election debacle, there had been speculation about a possible Cabinet revamp.

President Marcos’ public statements in recent days fanned the speculation. First when he told an Alyansa gathering that the midterm election results could have been better. And second when he announced that performance audits and changes are in the offing to improve basic services and overall governance.

Sure enough, BBM told all Cabinet-rank officials yesterday to submit courtesy resignations. They include Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chairman Romando Artes, Special Assistant for Investment and Economic Affairs Frederick Go and presidential advisers such as Larry Gadon for poverty alleviation.

Malacañang said a “bold reset” is needed to meet people’s expectations, with the government “sharper, faster and fully focused on the people’s most pressing needs.”

Making heads roll for poor performance may also be Marcos’ way of instilling fear rather than earning respect – a prospect that he raised in a recent podcast interview.

More than the message of political reconciliation, whose acceptance unsurprisingly hinges on several impossible conditions, the theme of that podcast chat was to show that BBM felt Filipinos’ pain.

Perhaps more accurately, he has been pained by the outcome of the midterm elections – traditionally seen as a referendum on the sitting administration. The midterm poll results were the worst for an administration slate since the scandal-plagued presidency of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Coming up are the first casualties of poll defeat: Cabinet members. Considering public dissatisfaction with many government services, it’s tough to guess who among them might be deemed to be an underperformer needing replacement.

In a speech at a gathering of his political allies on May 17, the President highlighted the “development issues” that need urgent attention, among which are health care, education, agriculture and supply.

Some Cabinet-level officials were appointed chiefly as a reward for supporting BBM in 2022. Now that he’s seen the consequences, perhaps he’ll give weight to qualifications rather than repayment of political debts in putting together a new team.

How can anyone take seriously his efforts to ease poverty when his anti-poverty czar is disbarred lawyer Larry Gadon?

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BBM’s reconciliation offer is also not being taken seriously by the Duterte diehard supporters or DDS.

The President may be able to distance himself from the impeachment of his estranged UniTeam partner, Vice President Sara Duterte. It looks like Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco, cousin-in-law of the Speaker (and distantly, of BBM), has been designated to stress this point.

But BBM can’t distance himself from the arrest of Rodrigo Duterte and detention in a prison in The Hague. BBM publicly took full responsibility for it, in his late-night address to the nation shortly after the former president was flown out of the NAIA.

Some folks think that late-night address was a bad idea and the task should have been delegated to a lower ranking official, to shield BBM from the fallout. But the deed has been done.

As for the VP’s impeachment, Presidential Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro has maintained that BBM is keeping his hands off the Senate trial and the issue cannot be a condition in any political reconciliation. Castro said that given a choice between friendship and the law, BBM is sworn to uphold the law.

A genuine reconciliation between the feuding clans seems remote at this point; there’s simply too much bad blood between them.

Going into 2028, BBM will have to give up trying to woo the DDS, and instead explore informal alliances with third forces.

While his favorite cousin’s party still dominated the local races, BBM personally campaigned for his Alyansa Senate slate. The victory of only five of them (even he should admit that his Ate Imee and Las Piñas Rep. Camille Villar went over to the other side) is a rebuff of his endorsement power.

BBM wins points for personally taking some of the blame for the Alyansa underperformance. His shift in focus on his anti-drug campaign, to now include penny-ante neighborhood pushers (but without the nanlaban killings), is an acknowledgment that he is perceived to be weak when it comes to peace and order.

The impressive third place win of Sen. Ronald dela Rosa is not just because of the solid DDS vote, but because, let’s admit it, there are a lot of Filipinos who genuinely want that take-no-prisoners approach to criminality.

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With Cabinet changes in the offing, is BBM also considering leadership changes in Congress?

Apart from disastrous messaging, which turned the Dutertes into aggrieved victims rather than murderous predators, BBM took a heavy hit from the shameless mangling of the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) by his super majority in the House of Representatives (a.k.a. the HOR) and the Senate.

The lawmakers obviously thought we Filipinos are too stupid to see when a brazen thievery of people’s money is taking place. Unfortunately for them, we may be math-challenged, but we have the functional literacy to understand national budgeting, and the basic literacy to see when our tax money is being stolen for the personal purposes of rotten politicians.

Pinoys saw that the 2025 GAA was turned into an election fund by lawmakers. And it must be emphasized that senators played as big a role in the institutionalized thievery as members of the HOR.

The budget scandal eclipsed the issue over VP Sara’s confidential funds and the horrific details of Duterte’s drug war unearthed in the House quad comm hearings.

There will be new members and new political configurations in the incoming 20th Congress. Those new configurations open opportunities for fresh leadership. Like the Cabinet, Congress can use a reset.

The question is how bold the reset will be.