MANILA, Philippines — Hours after his first Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he wants to have two of these meetings a week until the new addministration officials have a better picture of what he plans to do as chief executive.
"Hindi kami natapos (We did not finish) simply because there was so much to talk about," he said in a press briefing.
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"I am planning, perhaps, for the next two or three weeks to accelerate the number of Cabinet meetings, baka (maybe) two a week muna hangga't maliwanag na maliwanag na (first until it is very clear), it's important to me that the entire Cabinet understands what it is we're trying to do, how we're going to do it, what the timetable is and how it all fits together," he added.
His predecessor Rodrigo Duterte presided over 54 Cabinet meetings since the start of his term in 2016. Duterte also held weekly meetings with pandemic task force and Cabinet officials from 2020 until the end of his term. The meetings were recorded and later broadcast to the public.
Marcos Jr. noted that they made a "good start" in their first Cabinet meeting, which took four hours and, he said, generally covered discussions by the economic team.
He added that they also spoke about the resumption of face-to-face classes and how the transportation department can support students.
After the Cabinet meeting, Marcos Jr. held a press briefing where he fielded questions from members of the media. He has not yet, however, announced who would be taking the top posts for Health, Science and Energy.
This comes five days after he took his oath of office as the 17th President of the Philippines after winning by a landslide in this year's national elections. Marcos Jr., who concurrently serves as the Secretary of Agriculture, aspires to bring down the price of rice to P20 per kilogram. — Angelica Y. Yang