INCOMING President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has appointed former senator and veteran lawyer Juan Ponce Enrile as the presidential legal counsel, press secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles said on Friday, June 17, 2022.
Angeles said Marcos Jr. also appointed outgoing justice secretary Menardo Guevarra as the solicitor general and former Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff, retired general Jose Faustino Jr. as a senior undersecretary and officer-in-charge of the Department of National Defense (DND).
She said the three all accepted the posts.
Enrile served as the Minister of National Defense from January 1972 to November 1986, under then President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.
He also served as a senator from 1987 to 1992, 1995 to 2001 and 2004 to 2016.
Guevarra on the other hand was appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte as the Justice secretary in 2018.
He also served as the commissioner of the Philippine Competition Commission in 2016 under late President Benigno Aquino III.
Faustino served as the 63rd acting commanding general of the Philippine Army before he was appointed as the AFP chief of staff in 2021.
Related story: Marcos Jr.'s appointees
Marcos Jr. earlier appointed retired University of the Philippines political science Professor Clarita Carlos as his National Security Adviser; Abono party-list representative Conrado Estrella III as the chief of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR); Vice President elect Sara Duterte-Carpio as the secretary of education; former Metro Manila Development Authority chairman Benhur Abalos Jr. as the secretary of the Interior and local government; and Cavite seventh District Representative Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla as the justice secretary.
He also named Susan Ople as the head of the Department of Migrant Workers; Bienvenido Laguesma as the secretary of the labor department; Benjamin Diokno as the finance chief; Fred Pascual as the secretary of trade and industry; Manuel Bonoan as the secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways; Liloan Cebu Mayor Frasco as the tourism head; and Erwin Tulfo as the secretary of the social welfare and development department.
Lawyer Ivan John Uy was assigned to lead the Department of Information and Communications Technology; Amenah Pangandangan to the Department of Budget and Management; Felipe Medalla as the governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas; Arsenio Balisacan as the National Economic and Development Authority; and Maria Zenaida Angping as the head of the Presidential Management Staff.
Marcos Jr. also appointed his spokesperson Attorney Vic Rodriguez as his executive secretary and Davao del Norte Second District Representative Antonio Lagdameo Jr. as special assistant to the President. (SunStar Philippines)