Marcos 'means no offense' to CA over unconfirmed Cabinet members – Palace

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March 23, 2026 | 5:09pm

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s choice of keeping unconfirmed officers as heads of several departments should not be seen as a slight to the Commission of Appointments, the Palace said Monday, March 23.

The president "means no offense to the CA" and is "merely exercising his constitutional prerogative," Palace Press Officer Claire Castro told reporters when asked about Marcos' appointees. 

"He knows that an acting secretary can remain as acting secretary for only a period of one year," Castro said in mixed English and Filipino. 

Marcos will "submit the appointments" for various posts "in due time," Castro added.

The president's sister, Sen. Imee Marcos, last week vented to the commission about how her brother has been engaging in a "rampant practice" of tapping acting secretaries to fill in vacancies in his Cabinet to supposedly bypass the CA's approval.

The senator, speaking during the CA's plenary session on March 17, flagged what she says is the "normalization of acting appointments as a governing strategy" under the current administration.

"A deliberate method, perhaps, of bypassing the Commission on Appointments and diluting our sacrosanct constitutional role,” the president's sister said.

It is the CA that acts as a check on the president's power to appoint members of his Cabinet, among others. Under the 1987 Constitution, the CA can confirm or reject nominations of key officials, including Cabinet heads, ambassadors, and high-ranking military officers. 

Imee named nine officials whose appointment papers have supposedly not been submitted to the CA, namely: 

• Juan Miguel Cuna – Acting Environment Secretary

• Vince Dizon – Acting Public Works Secretary

• Frederick Go – Acting Finance Secretary

• Dave Gomez – Acting Presidential Communications Office Secretary

• Giovanni Lopez – Acting Transportation Secretary

• Gay Jane Perez – Acting Philippine Space Agency Director General

• Ralph Recto – Acting Executive Secretary

• Rolando Toledo – Acting Budget Secretary

• Frederick Vida – Acting Justice Secretary

In total, the senator said she counted 18 Cabinet-level members whose names the president has yet to submit for the CA's consent.

CA chairperson and Senate president Vicente Sotto III said the commission would take up the matter with Malacañang. 

Malacañang's apparent delay in submitting formal nominations comes amid speculation that the president may be waiting out the Constitution's one-year ban on appointing candidates who lost in the most recent midterm polls.

The acting appointments are also a byproduct of two rounds of Cabinet reshuffling under the current administration. The first came in May 2025, when Bongbong ordered courtesy resignations from all his Cabinet secretaries after his coalition underperformed in the midterm elections. 

A second reshuffle followed in November 2025, triggered by corruption allegations tied to flood-control projects, which led to the resignation of then-Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin and Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman. 

Recto was moved from finance to the executive secretary post, with Go taking over at finance. Neither has gone through the CA since.