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MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippines' ambassador to the United Nations has been named the country's new foreign secretary on Friday. This is the first of several cabinet changes expected before the mid-term elections next year.
FILE PHOTO – The President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, at the opening session of the ASEAN Summit and the European Union at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay, in the subway of Manila, Philippines, November 14, 2017.
President Rodrigo Duterte asked Ambassador Teodoro Locsin to replace Alan Peter Cayetano, who was planning to run for a seat in the lower house of Congress. Mr. Cayetano was a three-term member of Congress and a two-term senator before joining Cabinet last year.
"Can you please call Teddy Boy Locsin and ask him if I can quote his name here," Duterte told an assistant at a press conference in Manila.
Locsin, a three-member former congressman and newspaper editor, tweeted Friday later: "I've been asked. I said yes. "
Candidates began registering for the mid-term elections scheduled for May 2019 on Thursday as a referendum on Duterte's administration.
Five other cabinet members are expected to leave and run for elected office, including ministers of agriculture and agrarian reform, a political advisor and a special assistant.
Duterte's spokesman, Harry Roque, will also run for office next year, the president's office said. Roque has been replaced by the president's lawyer, Salvador Panelo.
Nearly 320 seats in the two-chamber legislature and more than 17,000 local administrator positions, ranging from 81 provincial governors to about 1,600 city councilors, will be challenged nationwide.
Report by Neil Jerome Morales and Manuel Mogato; Edited by Darren Schuettler
