Do we have a DENR secretary?
HONESTLY, I’ve become confused as nine months into the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. four crucial departments actually do not have secretaries, but mere OICs.
Prominent among these is the Defense department which only has an “OIC/senior undersecretary.” Quite anomalously, I think, an “OIC/undersecretary” will sign the EDCA documents that puts on the line the lives of 110 million Filipinos — if nuclear war breaks out between the US and China.
The Health department still has no secretary, only another “OIC/undersecretary” Maria Vergeire, even as she performed quite well as Health Secretary Francisco Duque’s deputy as well as being the face of the department in the government’s victory over the Covid-19 epidemic. Marcos himself of course is also officially the Agriculture secretary.
We do have a secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) who I’d bet very few of my readers can name: Maria Antonio Yulo-Loyzaga (the wife of a son of the basketball legend Carlos), who has however been practically invisible these past nine months.
(more…)