President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte lead the Basic Education Report 2024 at the Sofitel Hotel in Pasay City on January 25, 2024. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News 

MANILA -- President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Thursday said he would name Vice President Sara Duterte's replacement as head of the Department of Education this week.

“We have to carry on and the Department of Education is quite possibly, arguably, the most important… because education is that important, so no matter the change of leadership in the Department, we still have to carry on... I would like to be able to announce the appointment of the DepEd Secretary by the end of the week,” Marcos said.

The President said he was considering the current needs and requirements of the Department of Education.

“We cannot leave it open. Importante yung trabaho nila. We cannot just leave it like that na nakatiwangwang na walang secretary. Kaya’t minamadali ko lahat,” he said.

“Bigyan niyo ko maraming pangalan, ano gusto natin, what do we need tingnan natin ng mabuti where is the status of the DepEd, what is now required?  Ano pa ba yung kailangan gawin? So what do we need? Do we need an educator? Do we need an administrator, do we need an accountant? What do we need?  And that is what we are trying to determine right now.”

Duterte also resigned as the vice chairperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.

She did not give a reason for leaving the Cabinet, Marcos said.

VP Duterte says she's still 'friends' with Marcos following Cabinet exit

“I asked her, are there any particular reasons she has chosen to resign from the Department of Education and the NTF-ELCAC. She said, ‘Wag nalang natin pag-usapan.’ So I did not force the issue,” he said. 

Marcos and Duterte had teamed up to a landslide victory in the May 2022 presidential and vice-presidential election.

But the vice president's father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, and Marcos have had a very public falling out ahead of the 2025 mid-term elections and the presidential polls in 2028.

Fronting a rally of supporters in his home city Davao on January 28, Duterte accused Marcos of being a "drug addict", while his youngest son Sebastian Duterte said Marcos should resign.

Marcos hit back the next day, claiming that his predecessor's long-term use of the powerful opioid fentanyl had taken a toll on his health. Neither man provided evidence of the other's alleged drug use. 

Marcos on Duterte tirades: 'I think it's the fentanyl'

The former president has also urged the military and police to unseat Marcos if he pursued his proposal to amend the constitution, and threatened to get his southern home region of Mindanao to secede.

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In a press conference, Vice President Duterte said she had met with the president to inform him about her resignation effective July 19.

"Every story, no matter how beautiful, has to end," she told reporters.

"Even if I will not be the head of the department of education, I will continue to be a mother who will watch and stand for the rights of every teacher and every student in the Philippines."

-- With reports from Agence France-Presse; Pia Gutierrez, ABS-CBN News