A total of 35 appointees of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to key government positions are awaiting confirmation hearings before the bicameral Commission on Appointments (CA). CA Assistant Minority Leader and Surigao del Sur Representative Johnny Pimentel said the 35 appointees include Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. and Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa. Three diplomats and 25 other newly promoted senior military officers are included. Also included is retired Court of Tax Appeals associate justice Erlinda Uy, who was named on July 21 as Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) representative to the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) with a term of four years. Chaired by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the seven-member JBC is the constitutionally-created government office that recommends appointees to the judiciary. Pimentel said the CA has also received the promotion papers of Philippine Army Major Generals Freddie Dela Cruz and Noe Alberto Peñafiel, and Brigadier Generals Nasser Lidasan and William Peñafiel Jr. “The appropriate CA committees are expected to start their confirmation hearings on the appointees in August,” Pimentel said. The 25-member CA is empowered by the Constitution to vet the competence, fitness and integrity of key presidential appointees, and to approve or disapprove them. The following presidential appointees require the CA’s consent: •    Executive department heads •    Ambassadors, other public ministers and consul •    Officers of the Armed Forces from the rank of colonel or naval captain •    JBC regular members •    chairpersons and commissioners of the Civil Service Commission (CSC), Commission on Elections (Comelec), and the Commission on Audit (COA)