Every June 30 in a cycle of three or six years, public officials come and go. The former leaves and the latter sits in office, except those who were re-elected remain in their seats. But on this year’s cycle, some seats were left vacant as they left the chairs without someone to take on them.
After leaving, they were left alone in the abyss of uncertainty, not knowing when will it be filled with another. This happened when Bongbong Marcos assumed the highest post in the land at high noon on June 30, there were vacancies in cabinet positions at the start of his tenure as president.
Some of those include vital posts like the DOH, and DA, among others which left those departments on the sidelines with no one to lead. Despite naming people of various backgrounds, from veterans in previous years to new faces in the cabinet, Amid the current health crisis brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and the issue of food security, the two departments are tasked to monitor those happenings respectively, one being unoccupied while the other holds a position two steps up.
That led many people to think about why the administration is complacent in executing the job of the government, with a few quipping that it is a perfect representation of a “sedevacantist”. To put into context, the term is derived from the Latin word “sede vacante”, literally meaning a vacant seat.
In Catholic parlance, this term is used to denote the period between the death/resignation of a Pope and the election of a new one and can be also used in circumstances where there is no bishop presently leading a diocese. On the other hand, the term “sedevacantist” became a pejorative appellation to those who do not recognize the current pope as legitimate brought about by the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.
While the term is used primarily for the ecclesiastical realm, it presents a clear picture in the secular realm. It portrays a leader who betrays his pledge of “consecrating the self to the service of the nation”, as per the words of the Constitution.
It speaks of a figure that does not even show up to challenging moments. Remember the time when a lone vacant chair was shown in front of all? That speaks a lot, even if it is an inanimate object. A leaderless group can be disastrous, as it is vulnerable to collapse due to the lack of one who leads the group forward.
By this phenomenon, one can surely predict that it will be chaotic as time passes. Health and agriculture are vital to the welfare of the people, as they give nourishment and sustenance to every citizen. But having those departments without a captain to lead, will affect the government’s job of protecting the people.
Through this, it seems that the head of state is not interested in those two, even though he leads the latter. At the same time, his Press Secretary resigned from her post, adding one to the current vacancies which makes it worse.
By that departure, communications between the state and the people are in jeopardy. Those positions must be filled at the soonest possible time. If not, time will run out because no one sits there.
