Manila, May 23 -- President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has decided to keep Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin and five other Cabinet secretaries, amid a major Cabinet shake-up to "recalibrate" the government.

Bersamin on Friday announced that his courtesy resignation was not accepted because he has the "full backing" of the Chief Executive.

"He communicated to me I have his full backing, for as long as I wish to work for him. And that is a very good gesture of the President because that is a sign of his manifestation of his full trust and confidence in myself," Bersamin said in a Palace press briefing.

Apart from Bersamin, Marcos also rejected the courtesy resignations of his economic team -- Trade Secretary Maria Cristina Roque, Finance ...