Marcos drops VP Duterte, former presidents in NSC revamp
President Bongbong Marcos and Vice President Sara Duterte —File photos by Marianne Bermudez and Grig C. Montegranda | Philippine Daily Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has removed Vice President Sara Duterte from the National Security Council (NSC), further diminishing, if not totally eclipsing, her role in his administration following a bitter rift between the two former allies.
The vice president and former presidents, including her father, were excluded from the NSC in an executive order reorganizing the presidential advisory body principally responsible for coordinating and integrating government plans and policies related to national security.
In Executive Order No. 81 signed on Dec. 30, 2024, Marcos said there was a need to “further guarantee that the NSC remains a resilient national security institution, capable of adapting to evolving challenges and opportunities both domestically and internationally.”
Major concerns
He said the government must also “ensure that its council members uphold and protect national security and sovereignty, thereby fostering an environment conducive to effective governance and stability.”
One of the major national security concerns of the Marcos administration is China’s claims to the West Philippine Sea. Beijing continues to ignore the 2016 arbitral ruling that invalidated its claims.
Article continues after this advertisementSince taking office, Marcos reaffirmed ties with Washington, the country’s treaty ally, closing the gap created by his predecessor, former President Rodrigo Duterte, who had distanced himself from the United States while cultivating closer relations with China in hopes of getting more economic benefits from Beijing.
Article continues after this advertisementThe vice president also has been friendly with China, sometimes struggling to offer greetings in Mandarin on China’s national day celebrations. She has been criticized for not speaking out against Chinese incursions in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone and attacks against Philippine vessels.
Severed ties
Duterte formally cut her ties with the Marcos administration when she resigned as education secretary and stepped down from the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict in July.
Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin explained the president’s directive was aimed at reorganizing and streamlining the NSC membership.
“At the moment, the vice president is not considered relevant to the responsibilities of membership in the NSC. Nonetheless, when the need arises, the EO reserves to the president the power to add members or advisers,” Bersamin told Malacañang reporters.
National security adviser Eduardo Año, the director general of the NSC, said the reorganization was meant to “address current and emerging threats to national security.”
In a statement, Año said on Friday that the president’s EO was “necessary to further enhance the formulation of policies” on national security.
READ: Marcos reorganizes NSC, removes VP as member due to irrelevance
He said the Administrative Code of 1987 vested the president with “continuing authority to reorganize the administrative structure of the Office of the President,” which includes the NSC.
2 EOs superseded
He said the reorganization was premised on the need for “timely and coherent action” to deal with “current and emerging threats” to national security.
The new EO supersedes Executive Order No. 33 issued by then-President Fidel Ramos in 1992 and Executive Order No. 34 in 2001 by then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, in which the president chairs the NSC composed of 26 other officials from the executive and legislative branches, including the vice president.
The vice president was also part of the smaller NSC executive committee.
Aside from Duterte’s 79-year-old father, the other living presidents who could participate in NSC meetings but are now excluded are Arroyo, 77, and Joseph Estrada, 87.
EO 81 authorized the president to appoint or designate other government officials or private citizens as NSC members from time to time.
The directive also authorized the director general of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (Nica), the chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Philippine National Police chief, and the director of the National Bureau of Investigation to attend NSC meetings as necessary “to advise and assist in its deliberations.”
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas governor may also be invited to NSC meetings.
New composition
With the reorganization of the NSC, the body is now composed of the following:
- president as its chair
- Senate president
- House speaker
- Senate president pro tempore
- three House deputy speakers to be designated by the speaker
- Senate and House majority and floor leaders
- chairs of the Senate panels on foreign relations; national defense and security; peace, unification and reconciliation; and public order and dangerous drugs
- executive secretary
- heads of the House committees on foreign affairs; national defense and security; and public order and safety
- national security adviser
- foreign secretary
- justice secretary
- defense secretary
- interior secretary
- labor secretary
- chief presidential legal counsel
- presidential communications secretary
- chief of the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office
Members, tasks
The NSC executive committee’s members are the following:
- president as chair
- executive secretary
- Senate president
- House speaker or their representatives
- national security adviser
- foreign secretary
- justice secretary
- defense secretary
- interior secretary
- members or advisers that the president may designate
The NSC is tasked with advising the president on matters related to national security. It supervises Nica and the intelligence community. The NSC also coordinates the government’s efforts to pursue its national security goals.
The removal of the vice president from the NSC came in the wake of her disclosure that she left instructions to assassinate Marcos, first lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and Speaker Martin Romualdez in case she dies in an alleged plot to kill her.
Uninvited since 2022
Following her “kill” remark, Año said the NSC considered any threat against the president a serious national security matter.
Marcos himself said he would fight such a threat.
Duterte questioned the NSC for not inviting her to the meeting where it discussed her remarks during a profanity-laced tirade against the Marcoses and Romualdez last November. She said she made no threat to harm them and only sought to highlight the supposed threats to her safety for which she had not provided any basis.
Duterte said she never received invitations to attend NSC meetings since June 30, 2022, when she assumed office, and asked for notarized minutes of all NSC meetings called since then so that she could review what the NSC had accomplished.
She also sought the legal basis for her exclusion from the NSC meetings, adding that Filipinos should demand transparency and accountability from the body.
On Friday, the Presidential Communications Office said no NSC meeting had been held since Marcos took over the presidency, but the Radio Television Malacañang’s YouTube account showed that he convened an NSC meeting on Feb. 7, 2023. The video did not show Duterte in attendance.
