Metro Manila, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. rejected any talk of Vice President Sara Duterte’s ouster, saying he does not want her out and she doesn’t deserve to be impeached.
“Binabantayan namin nang mabuti [We are monitoring that closely] because we don’t want her to be impeached. We don’t want her to—she does not deserve to be impeached. So, we will make sure that this is something that we will pay very close attention to,” President Marcos said at a briefing with the media in Hawaii on Monday (PH time).
Marcos added impeachment calls against government officials were not new.
“So, I guess, a continuing evolution of that thinking na basta ayaw namin diyan, tanggalin natin, i-impeach natin. Well, meron naman sigurong dahilan kung hindi lang ayaw sa amin. That’s not a reason to be impeached,” he added.
[Translation: So, I guess, a continuing evolution of that thinking that if we don’t like that person, we’ll remove them, we’ll have them impeached. Well, there must be a reason other than they don’t like us. That’s not a reason to be impeached.]
Talk of impeaching Duterte floated amid discussions in Congress about her office’s confidential funds. ACT Teachers Party-list Rep. France Castro denied there was any move to oust the vice president, however she did say she would find ways to hold Duterte accountable.
The president also denied that there were cracks emerging in the UniTeam, adding people only had to look at political developments to see that this was not true.
He added he had a good relationship with Duterte, saying he has received good feedback on her work at the Department of Education
Duterte, meanwhile, said she believes she still had the trust of Marcos, adding he knew about talks of her impeachment.
Duterte said she is looking into rumors about the possible filing of an impeachment complaint against her.
“We are currently doing our due diligence on this one. We will release a comment on the appropriate time,” Duterte said.
Marcos is on the last leg of his six-day US trip which began in San Francisco for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit. He met with several Filipino communities over several days and thanked Filipinos for trusting and voting for him and Duterte during the elections.
“From the bottom of my heart, I must say thank you for believing in this leadership. In return, I and my administration will be hard at work, and have been hard at work, from day one to ensure that we accomplish all that we have set out to do,” he said at Sunday’s meeting (PH time) with Filipinos in Honolulu.
Earlier, House Majority Leader Manuel Dalipe said it would be difficult to gain support for an impeachment complaint against Duterte without substantial evidence. He added the issue only intends to cause a rift between the vice president and House Speaker Martin Romualdez.
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