MANILA (Reuters) -Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr named a new education minister on Tuesday, replacing former vice president Sara Duterte who resigned from the post in late June.
Senator Juan Edgardo Angara will fill the role, according to a statement by the presidential communications office.
Duterte, whose alliance with Marcos had been expected to collapse, also resigned from another key post but remains vice president.
Angara, a lawyer, has championed education reforms since joining the Senate in 2013, the presidential office said.
He authored laws to enhance basic education and improve access to tertiary education, and served as chairman of the Senate Committee on Youth.
The Department of Education "is arguably the most important department given the crucial role of education," Marcos said in the statement.
Angara faces the task of reforming an education system hit hard by the pandemic. Scores in the Philippines were among the lowest in the world in math, science and reading, according to the Programme for International Student Assessment, an international study of education systems.
(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Editing by Poppy McPherson and Stephen Coates)
