Malacañang said no appointment was issued yet for a new secretary of the Department of National Defense (DND), even though congratulatory messages circulated online.

Former Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro (File)

Communications Secretary Cheloy Garafil said this after Filipino netizens started congratulating former Defense Secretary Gilbert "Gibo" Teodoro for his comeback to the DND.

In a text message, the Palace official said no appointments were made as of Friday evening, June 2.

"There's no appointment as of this time," she told Palace reporters.

Marcos has yet to appoint a permanent secretary to the DND. He first named Jose Faustino Jr. as Defense senior undersecretary until his resignation early this year.

President Marcos then tapped presidential peace adviser Carlito Galvez Jr. to lead the Defense Department but also as a senior undersecretary.

In an interview with Malacañang reporters during his recent trip to Indonesia for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit, Marcos said there would be significant changes in his Cabinet after the ban on appointing losing election candidates to government positions lapsed on May 9.

"Marami. Talagang gagamitin mo yung one year. Asahan niyo yun (There will be many. You'll really use the one year. You can expect that)," he said on May 9.

"So, yes, there's still going to be... I don't know about "reshuffle," pero reorganization sa Gabinete (but a reorganization in the Cabinet)," he added.

President Marcos said the previous year was enough to evaluate his current Cabinet members. He even described their performance as "on-the-job training" (OJT).

Teodoro was one of the senatorial candidates of Marcos' Uniteam who failed to make the cut in the 2022 polls. He placed 15th with over 12.7 million votes.

Aside from the DND, Marcos has yet to name secretaries to permanently lead the Departments of Agriculture (DA) and Health (DOH).

The President is concurrently heading the DA, while Health Undersecretary is leading the DOH as its officer-in-charge.