Mar Roxas and the latest 'trial balloon'

OVER a week ago, the social media carried an online report on the President's supposedly "latest Cabinet appointments." The report did not carry a verifiable official source, but the names and faces of the supposedly new appointees included some people I knew were hoping to get appointed, and others who were actually being talked about for the Cabinet.

These included former Tarlac congressman and defense secretary Gilbert "Gibo" Cojuangco Teodoro, who ran in the last senatorial election and could not be appointed to any position until after the lapse of one year. In 2010, Teodoro was easily the best performing presidential candidate in the debate circuit, but Noynoy Aquino, his cousin and Cory Aquino's son, had the edge because of Smartmatic. In the 2022 election, Gibo ran unsuccessfully for the Senate, but immediately became a leading contender for defense secretary, a position he had previously held under President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.