Not the first time: Mass courtesy resignations in the past presidencies

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May 23, 2025 | 6:30pm

MANILA, Philippines — In a surprising move, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has called on all of his Cabinet secretaries to resign following the administration ticket’s poor performance in the 2025 polls. But this is not the first time such an overhaul has happened.

Manuel Quezon III, a historian and former editor-in-chief of the Official Gazette, noted that a massive Cabinet reshuffle has occurred before.

“We have no institutional memory so we forget after a midterm its traditional for presidents to have a cabinet revamp: when rebuked by a defeat, throwing people overboard offers a human sacrifice to the public; where presidents do well and feel validated, it pays off old debts,” Quezon said in a Facebook post on Thursday. 

Following the ouster of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., then President Corazon Aquino's administration faced a period of crisis. In 1986, after discovering a coup plot allegedly orchestrated by legal veteran and then-Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile, Aquino asked her entire Cabinet to resign, according to "The Washington Post." She said this would allow her government to start anew.

Years later, former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo also reset her Cabinet in the wake of controversy. Amid calls for her resignation following the “Hello Garci” scandal, Arroyo chose to remain in office but asked her entire Cabinet to step down instead. She promised sweeping reforms and many of her secretaries complied.

Aside from Aquino and Arroyo, there have also been instances of multiple resignations in a short period.

Under the late President Benigno Aquino III, at least three consecutive appointees resigned from their posts. Malacañang at the time maintained that the resignations were coincidental.