President Rodrigo Duterte says in an event in Beijing that if former Senator Bongbong Marcos wins in his electoral protest against Vice President Leni Robredo, then there is a possibility the Philippines might have a new vice president.
The president has already been serving the country for three months, with the election considerably a thing of the past already, but Duterte still brought up the issue on the vice president’s position during an event in Beijing that was held for his state visit in the said country.
Marcos, his sister Imee Marcos, and Cabinet officials joined the president in a gathering with China-based Filipinos in a Beijing hotel on Wednesday, October 19.
Upon introducing Marcos, the president mentioned the on-going protest of the vice presidential candidate and the possibility of being the new vice president if the protest turns out to be a success.
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“Si Bingbong, ah si Bongbong…kung Manalo siya sa protest niya baka bago ang ating bise president,” Duterte said while introducing Bongbong to the attendees of the event.
Duterte also introduced Alan Peter Cayetano, who was a rival of Marcos during the May 2016 elections.
Vice President Leni Robredo won over Marcos by just a small margin, which the latter protested right after the election results were announced, saying that it was a manipulation by Robredo’s party.
It is also known that the President is good friends with the Marcos family, which explains why he had delayed appointing Robredo to a Cabinet position, saying that he has to take into consideration his friendship with the Marcoses.
When asked about his opinion about what the President said about him possibly taking over the vice presidency, Marcos said that he saw it as the President’s way of behaving as a friend and that he was lucky of having “a friend in the President.”
The attendance of the Marcos siblings during the event in China was unannounced and thus came as a surprise to the press as their name were not included in the official list of the Philippine delegation.
However, Duterte is very vocal about his friendship with the Marcoses, even mentioning Imee Marcos as one of his supporters during his presidential bid and campaign donors, though this was not declared in his Statement of Contributions and Expenditures (SOCE).
Imee Marcos denied any financial contribution in the campaign and brushed it off as a joke by the President.
Source: (rappler.com)
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