Not so bold

Something old, something new... the increasing jokes about the ongoing revamp indicate public impatience with the promised "bold reset" of Marcos 2.0.

- ANA MARIE PAMINTUAN

After Episode 2 of the reorganization, it's starting to look like a purge not just of underperformers and suspected crooks, but mostly of officials seen to be sympathetic to the Dutertes.

Menardo Guevarra, who recused the entire Office of the Solicitor General from defending the government in the arrest of Rodrigo Duterte, could no longer count on his school ties with the First Lady. Guevarra, Duterte's last justice secretary, has been Marcos' solicitor general "since the beginning, and maybe it is time for him to go to another venture," according to Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who announced phase two of the revamp.

Guevarra's replacement, Darlene Marie Berberabe, was plucked out of her job as dean of the University of the Philippines College of Law.

Another Duterte appointee, J. Prospero de Vera III, is also out as chairman of the Commission on Higher Education.

As of yesterday, Duterte Cabinet member Eduardo Año's fate as BBM's national security adviser remained uncertain. Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla, who has been retained, had revealed that Año was part of the core group that planned Duterte's arrest, providing the group with intel on the former president's trip to Hong Kong and subsequent return to Manila.

Also uncertain is the job of Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco, former spokesperson for Vice President Sara Duterte. Frasco's mother, Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia, sided with the administration in the UniTeam breakup, and BBM personally campaigned for her and her team.

It says a lot about BBM's endorsement power midway through his term that Garcia lost to a newcomer (backed by the Dutertes), who won even in the Frasco bailiwick of Liloan town.