President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. would need to reappoint Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Erwin Tulfo as the Commission on Appointments (CA) will bypass his appointment anew.
Senate President Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri disclosed this in an interview on Monday, December 12, saying Congress has no time to take up his nomination.
“He will be bypassed this coming month and then he'll have to be reappointed by the President shortly after that," Zubiri told reporters in an interview.
The powerful appointments body has only until Dec. 17, 2022 to hold plenary sessions before adjourning for the holiday season. Congress will resume on January 22, 2023.
A CA panel earlier deferred deliberations on the ad interim appointment of Tulfo after the latter’s American citizenship and his conviction on four counts of libel was raised against him.
“The matter regarding the DSWD is a bit more complicated because we have even invited justices to weigh in on two things—the issue about his citizenship and the issue regarding his conviction with finality at the Supreme Court),” Zubiri explained.
Zubiri said members of the CA are bound to follow their constitutional mandate.
"I like Secretary Tulfo. I'll be honest about it.... Gusto ko siya. Masipag siya (I like him as DSWD chief. He is hardworking),” the Senate leader said.
“Sayang. Nasasayangan ako sa kanya... (I feel bad about it). But we have to perform our constitutional mandate to make sure we vet out the members of the Cabinet that have no legal impediments," he said.
"There are legal impediments and there are legal issues that we still have to resolve. Hopefully, we will be able to fix all these legal impediments," Zubiri added.
In an interview, Tulfo acknowledged that he would be bypassed by the CA. But he declined to comment further on the issues raised against him as he “doesn’t want to complicate it further.”
But he has received instructions from President Marcos to continue what he has been doing in the DSWD.