Marcos Jr. reorganizes key offices in Malacañang
MANILA, Philippines – President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has reorganized the Office of the President, renaming the Office of the Press Secretary (OPS) as the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) and placing the Presidential Management Staff under the Office of the Executive Secretary.
In his Executive Order (EO) No. 11, signed last Thursday, December 29 and uploaded on The Official Gazette on Wednesday, January 4, Marcos cited the “need to further streamline the administrative structure of the Office of the President as part of the continuing efforts towards efficiency and responsiveness in the delivery of its critical mandates to the Filipino people.”
Improving bureaucratic efficiency is among the priorities of the Marcos administration as it is contained in the President’s eight-point socioeconomic agenda.
READ: Executive Order No. 11
EO No. 11 reintroduced the OPS as the PCO, which is responsible for “crafting, formulating, developing, enhancing and coordinating the messaging system of the Executive branch and the Office of the President.”
It was only last July when Marcos ordered for what was known then as the Presidential Communications Operations Office to be renamed as the OPS.
READ: PCOO renamed to Office of Press Secretary, Office of Pres’l Spokesperson repealed
The PCO will now be among the five offices under the Office of the President, together with the Executive Office, Office of the Chief Presidential Legal Counsel, Private Office and Office of the Special Assistant to the President (OSAP).
The Private Office, according to the order, “shall provide direct services to the President, and shall for this purpose attend to the functions and matters that are personal or which pertain to the First Family.”
Meanwhile, OSAP will oversee the Presidential Assistants and the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office and push for the administration’s priority measures in both chambers of Congress.
PMS finds way under Executive Secretary
Through Marcos’ EO No. 11, the task of controlling and supervising the Presidential Management Staff (PMS) is transferred from OSAP to the Office of the Executive Secretary.
“The PMS shall likewise perform the functions of the Cabinet Secretariat, in assisting the President in the establishment of agenda topics for Cabinet deliberation and facilitating discussions of cabinet meetings. For this purpose, the Cabinet Clusters System shall be under the PMS,” it further read.
The order also noted that the PMS will be exercising administrative supervision over the correspondence office.
The reorganization of the PMS came a few weeks after its chief Zenaida Angping requested for time off from her duties for personal reasons.
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