In this handout photo received from the Bongbong Marcos Media Bureau on June 9, 2022, US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman (left) meets with then president-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr (right) during their meeting in Makati, Metro Manila. (BONGBONG MARCOS MEDIA BURE / AFP)

MANILA – Philippine President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr has appointed former military chief Jose Faustino as the Southeast Asian country's next defense minister in his cabinet, his press secretary said on Friday.

Faustino will initially be the officer-in-charge of the defense ministry, in line with a rule barring military officers from taking up ministerial posts for a year after retirement

When he takes up the post later this month, Faustino will have to balance the Philippines' relations with Beijing and treaty ally Washington.

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He will also have to contend with a decades-long insurgency by Maoist rebels and the ongoing threat from violent Muslim extremism in the volatile southern Philippines.

Faustino will initially be the officer-in-charge of the defense ministry, in line with a rule barring military officers from taking up ministerial posts for a year after retirement. He will later become the defense chief, press secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles said in a statement.

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Faustino was the 10th military chief to serve under outgoing Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, leading the 143,000-strong military for four months last year.

Relations between the United States and its former Asian colony have been complicated under Duterte, who has criticized US foreign policy and sought closer ties with China, since coming to power in 2016.

Marcos, who is due to be sworn in as president on June 30, has yet to nominate his foreign affairs minister.

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