Duterte eyeing Cabinet shake-up

President Rodrigo Duterte is eyeing to revamp his Cabinet, as he is not satisfied with the performance of some of his top officials, Malacañang said yesterday.

“He (Duterte) really said that he is not happy with the performance of some of [Cabinet] officials, and that there will be re-organization of Cabinet,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. said in a television interview.

“(But) no one (will be fired yet), not in the coming week,” he added.

Roque issued the remark in the light of Duterte’s discontent with the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) recommendation to junk the drug trafficking charges against alleged high-profile drug lords in Visayas, Peter Lim and Kerwin Espinosa.

The President earlier warned DOJ Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II to send him to prison, if Lim and Espinosa get off scot-free.

Roque, however, reiterated that the President, even though he was irked by the dropping of charges against the two suspected drug personalities, still trusts Aguirre.

“Well, if the President has no trust (in Aguirre), he would not wait for the resignation; he will fire him right away because the President already fired many (government officials),” he said.

No one will be fired, not in the coming week.

HARRY ROQUE JR.

Presidential Spokesperson