Marcos sets Cabinet shake-up  

LABUAN BAJO, Indonesia — President Marcos has announced that there will be a reorganization of the Cabinet following the end of the one-year appointment ban on those who ran in the May 2022 elections.

“Yes, there’s really going to be – I don’t know about reshuffle but – a reorganization of the Cabinet,” Marcos told reporters in an interview at the Ayana Hotel here Tuesday night.

He said he has already evaluated who performed well during his first year in office and will be picking additional Cabinet members from among competent individuals who lost in the May 2022 polls.

Marcos has yet to appoint full-time heads for the Departments of Agriculture (DA), of Health (DOH) and of National Defense (DND). ?

The President concurrently heads the DA, while Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire and Senior Undersecretary Carlito Galvez Jr. serve as officers-in-charge of the DOH and the DND, respectively.?

At the Bureau of Immigration (BI), the three-member Board of Commissioners was completed following the appointment of lawyer Daniel Laogan as deputy commissioner.

The three members of the board are Commissioner Norman Tansingco who was appointed last September; Laogan and DepCom Joel Viado, who was appointed last April.

Information released by the BI stated that Laogan is a lawyer by profession who took up his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Commerce at the University of Santo Tomas and finished his Law degree at the Ateneo de Manila University. He was admitted to the Philippine Bar in 1982.

Apart from his experience in both the public and private sectors, Laogan also worked in academe, having served as regent of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila and professor of Law in Taxation at the College of Law of Adamson University.

He previously worked as the director of the Philippine Savings Bank, National Food Authority and Development Bank of the Philippines. He was a senior adviser for Investment and Promotions and Investor Relations of the Manila Economic and Cultural Office.

He also served as a director of Philtrust Bank and as senior adviser of the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Inc. He is also a president emeritus of the Chinese Filipino Business Club Inc. and chairman and president of Addmore Group of Companies, as well as a managing partner of the Daniel Y. Laogan Law Offices. – Evelyn Macairan