TL;DR: Sonny Angara has served as DepEd Secretary since July 19, 2024, appointed by President Marcos Jr. and confirmed by the Commission on Appointments that August. He's the head of a department that has changed names six times since 1901: Department of Public Instruction, Department of Education, Department of Education and Culture, Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, DECS, and since 2001, DepEd. The Secretary is a presidential appointee with no fixed term, confirmed by the Commission on Appointments, and holds "overall authority and supervision" over the department under Republic Act No. 9155.
Parents, teachers, and job seekers search "who is the DepEd secretary" for practical reasons: to know whose name goes on a citation, whose policy announcements to follow, or simply to check that a scholarship letter or news story lines up with the current administration. The post has changed hands several times in the past decade, and the department itself has been renamed more than once since it was created in 1901. This guide covers who currently holds the office, what the job actually involves under Philippine law, how someone gets appointed to it, and a full list of everyone who has led Philippine basic education from the American colonial period to today. For how DepEd's mandate compares to the agency that runs colleges and universities, see our DepEd vs. CHED guide.
Who Is the Current DepEd Secretary?
Sonny Angara is the current Secretary of the Department of Education, appointed by President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. in July 2024 and confirmed by the Commission on Appointments on August 7, 2024. He took over from Vice President Sara Duterte, whose resignation from the post took effect on July 19, 2024.
Before DepEd, Angara spent, per his official department biography, "nine years as a congressman representing the Province of Aurora and eleven years as a senator," authoring more than 300 laws including measures on free kindergarten and free college tuition. He studied at Xavier School, the London School of Economics, the University of the Philippines College of Law, and Harvard Law School. His father, Edgardo Angara, was a former University of the Philippines president and long-serving senator.
In mid-2025, Angara submitted a courtesy resignation, a routine gesture Cabinet members make available to the President during periodic reshuffles rather than a sign of trouble. It was not accepted, and he has continued leading DepEd since, including through the 2026 school-opening season and the rollout of the new senior high curriculum changes.
Disclaimer: Cabinet appointments can change without much notice. Verify the current secretary directly on deped.gov.ph before citing this in anything official.
What Does the DepEd Secretary Actually Do?
The Secretary of Education runs the department that oversees Kindergarten through Grade 12 education and the Alternative Learning System nationwide, not colleges or technical-vocational schools, which fall under separate agencies. Republic Act No. 9155, the Governance of Basic Education Act of 2001, spells out the job in specific terms.
Under RA 9155, the Secretary "shall exercise overall authority and supervision over the operations of the Department" and holds "authority, accountability and responsibility" for:
| Function | What It Covers |
|---|---|
| Formulating national educational policies | Sets the rules DepEd Orders and Memoranda carry out |
| Formulating the national basic education plan | Long-range planning for the K-12 system |
| Promulgating national educational standards | Curriculum, grading, and assessment standards |
| Monitoring and assessing national learning outcomes | Tracking whether students are actually learning |
| Undertaking national educational research | Studies that inform policy changes |
| Enhancing personnel welfare and competence | Teacher hiring standards, working conditions, professional development |
| Enhancing total development of learners | Local and national learner-support programs |
The Secretary is assisted by up to four undersecretaries and four assistant secretaries, each typically responsible for a portfolio, such as curriculum, finance, or field operations, per RA 9155's structure for the department's leadership.
How Is the DepEd Secretary Appointed?
The DepEd Secretary is a presidential appointee and a member of the President's Cabinet, the same as the Secretary of Finance or Secretary of Justice. The President selects the appointee directly, and the appointment then goes to the Commission on Appointments (CA), a body made up of members of the Senate and House of Representatives, for confirmation. Angara's CA confirmation in August 2024 reportedly took only minutes, reflecting broad legislative support rather than being typical of every appointee's experience.
There's no fixed term of office written into law for the Secretary position itself. A secretary serves at the President's pleasure: they can hold the post for a full six-year presidential term, be reassigned mid-term, or resign for personal or political reasons well before a term ends. That's part of why several names on the list below served only a matter of months.
How Has the Department's Name Changed Over Time?
DepEd has operated under at least six different names since the Philippines' first modern education department was organized in 1901, reflecting shifts in political structure, from American colonial administration through martial law to the present republic.
| Period | Official Name | Head's Title |
|---|---|---|
| 1901–1916 | Department of Public Instruction | General Superintendent |
| 1916–1942 | Department of Public Instruction | Secretary |
| 1947–1972 | Department of Education | Secretary |
| 1972–1978 | Department of Education and Culture | Secretary |
| 1978–1982 | Ministry of Education and Culture | Minister |
| 1982–1987 | Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports | Minister |
| 1987–2001 | Department of Education, Culture and Sports (DECS) | Secretary |
| 2001–present | Department of Education (DepEd) | Secretary |
The 2001 change was the most consequential for how the department works today. Republic Act No. 9155 stripped out "Culture" and "Sports" from the name and, more importantly, from the department's scope, spinning off higher education to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and technical-vocational training to TESDA, both of which already existed but had overlapping functions with the old DECS. What remained under DepEd was basic education specifically, Kindergarten through what eventually became Grade 12.
Full List of Philippine Education Secretaries
Below is a list of everyone who has led the department, compiled from Wikipedia's chronology of the office and cross-checked against DepEd's own published biography of the current secretary and individual news coverage of recent appointments where available. Titles varied across eras (Superintendent, Secretary, Minister, Commissioner) as shown in the table above; this list uses whichever title was in force at the time.
Secretaries of Education, DepEd/DECS era (2001–present), most recent first:
| Secretary | Term | Appointing President |
|---|---|---|
| Sonny Angara | July 19, 2024 – present | Ferdinand Marcos Jr. |
| Sara Duterte | June 30, 2022 – July 19, 2024 | Ferdinand Marcos Jr. |
| Leonor Briones | June 30, 2016 – June 30, 2022 | Rodrigo Duterte |
| Armin Luistro | June 30, 2010 – June 30, 2016 | Benigno Aquino III |
| Mona Valisno | March 15, 2010 – June 30, 2010 | Gloria Macapagal Arroyo |
| Jesli Lapus | October 4, 2006 – March 15, 2010 | Gloria Macapagal Arroyo |
| Fe Hidalgo (Officer in Charge) | Aug 2005 – Oct 2006 | Gloria Macapagal Arroyo |
| Florencio Abad | Sept 2004 – July 2005 | Gloria Macapagal Arroyo |
| Edilberto de Jesus | Sept 2002 – Aug 2004 | Gloria Macapagal Arroyo |
| Raul Roco | Jan 2001 – Aug 2002 | Gloria Macapagal Arroyo |
Roco's term straddles the 2001 DECS-to-DepEd rename; he held the post under both names.
Earlier officeholders, back to the American-era Department of Public Instruction, include Andrew Gonzalez (1998–2001), Ricardo Gloria (1994–1997), Armand Fabella (1992–1994), Isidro Cariño (1990–1992), Lourdes Quisumbing (1986–1989), Onofre Corpuz (across several stints between the 1960s and early 1980s), Alejandro Roces (1962–1965), Manuel Quezon (briefly in 1938–39, before he became President), Sergio Osmeña (in the 1930s, also before his presidency), and Bernard Moses, the department's first Secretary of Public Instruction, from 1901 to 1902. A full name-by-name table going back to 1901 is maintained on Wikipedia's Secretary of Education (Philippines) page, linked in Sources below, for readers who need the complete historical roster.
Disclaimer: dates for pre-2001 officeholders come from a secondary source (Wikipedia) rather than a DepEd-published register; verify any specific historical date against a primary source before citing it academically.
What Should You Do With This Information?
- Citing the current secretary in a letter, report, or citation? Confirm the name directly on deped.gov.ph before sending, since Cabinet posts can change with little warning.
- Researching a historical DepEd Order? Match the order's date against the secretary list above; DepEd Orders are typically signed by the sitting secretary and named accordingly.
- Writing about DepEd policy for school or work? Distinguish between the Secretary (a person, appointed and replaceable) and the Department (an institution with continuity across administrations) — policies like the K-12 grading system or the curriculum outlast any one secretary's term.
- Confused about DepEd vs. CHED vs. TESDA? They're separate agencies with separate heads; DepEd covers K-12 only. See DepEd vs. CHED for the full breakdown.
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Sources
- DepEd — Secretary Sonny Angara (official biography)
- DepEd — DepEd Executive Committee
- DepEd — History of the Department
- Republic Act No. 9155 — Governance of Basic Education Act of 2001 (full text via Chan Robles)
- Philippine News Agency — CA approves appointment of Sonny Angara as DepEd secretary
- Philstar — DepEd class opening preps in "full blast" after Angara courtesy resignation
- Wikipedia — Secretary of Education (Philippines)
- Wikipedia — Department of Education (Philippines)
- SchoolFinderPH — DepEd vs. CHED: What's the Difference?
