Former DILG chief Benhur Abalos appointed Cabinet Secretary
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has appointed former Department of the Interior and Local Government chief Benhur Abalos as Cabinet Secretary.
Palace Press Officer Usec. Claire Castro announced the appointment in a statement shared via the Presidential Communications Office on July 8. Abalos will take his oath on the same day.
With this, Abalos returns to the Marcos administration after previously serving as DILG secretary from 2022 to 2024. He resigned in October 2024 to run for a senatorial seat; however, he failed to make it in the magic 12, placing 16th.
Abalos will be Marcos' first Cabinet Secretary, as the president abolished the position in 2022 through Executive Order No. 1 in an effort to ensure "just allocation of resources and a simplified internal management and governance of the Office of the President."
Under the order, the Office of the Cabinet Secretary was placed under the Presidential Management Staff.
The Cabinet Secretariat, along with the Executive Secretary, "assists the President in establishing agenda topics for Cabinet deliberations, or facilitates the discussion of cabinet meetings."
National Bureau of Investigation Director Melvin Matibag served as the last acting Cabinet Secretary from March to June 2022 under the administration of former president Rodrigo Duterte, who's currently detained at the International Criminal Court to face trial for crimes against humanity.
Before Matibag, Leonicio Evasco Jr. and Karlo Nograles sat as Cabinet Secretaries for Duterte from June 2016 to October 2018 and November 2018 to March 2022, respectively.
Abalos's other political positions include Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chairman from 2021 to 2022, mayor of Mandaluyong from 1998 to 2004 and 2007 to 2016, and representative for the lone district of Mandaluyong from 2004 to 2007.
