While it is true that a Member of the Cabinet serves at the pleasure of the President, the Vice President holding a Cabinet portfolio must be treated differently from the rest of the Cabinet Members for the following reasons:

1. A Vice President’s appointment in the Cabinet has constitutional basis or anchorage, unlike all of the other Cabinet Members who are political appointees. The second paragraph of Section 3 of Article VII of the Constitution provides: “The Vice-President may be appointed as a Member of the Cabinet.” This makes the Vice President distinct from the other Cabinet Members.

   Following the Constitution, Vice Presidents after the EDSA People Power Revolution had been invariably extended appointments to the Cabinet:

   1. Vice President Salvador Laurel was appointed Secretary of Foreign Affairs by President Corazon Aquino;

   2. Vice President Joseph Estrada was appointed Chairman of the Anti-Crime Commission with Cabinet rank by President Fidel Ramos;

   3. Vice President Gloria Arroyo was appointed Secretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development by President Estrada.

   4. Vice President Noli de Castro was appointed Housing Secretary by President Arroyo. He was concurrently Presidential Adviser on Overseas Filipino Workers.

   5. Vice President Jejomar Binay was appointed Housing Secretary by President Benigno Aquino. He also headed Task Force OFW.

   6. Vice President Leni Robredo was appointed Housing Secretary by President Duterte despite his initial decision not to give Robredo a Cabinet post in deference to Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.

2. The Vice President, as Member of the Cabinet, is the only incumbent elected member of the President’s Official Family, while the rest may even be unelectable.

3. As a Cabinet appointee, the Vice President requires no confirmation by the Commission on Appointments, unlike the rest who have to pass the gamut of the confirmation process. Again, the second paragraph of Section 3 of Article VII provides: “Such appointment requires no confirmation.”

4. Unlike the other Members of the Cabinet, the Vice President is the first in line in the succession for President.

5. As a Cabinet Member, the Vice President could not be considered merely as an alter ego of the President because he or she has a distinct and separate popular and constitutional mandate.

Giving Vice President Leni Robredo the raw deal as Housing Secretary is consummate imprudence. The unceremonious manner by which Robredo was eased out from the Cabinet smacks of inordinate partisanship, gross impropriety and absence of requisite politesse.

EDCEL C. LAGMAN