By Alec Go
Vice President Sara Duterte resigned from the Lakas-CMD party on Friday, a move President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said he understood considering the weight of Duterte’s responsibilities.
Asked about his reaction to Sara’s move, Marcos said the vice president has a lot to attend to.
“Very simple, exactly as she says. Alam mo naman si Inday Sara, she’s very plainspoken. Kung ano yung sinabi, yun ang ibig sabihin niya,” Marcos told the media in an interview in Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte.
“She has too much work to do, she cannot be involved in any of these. She cannot allow herself to be distracted,” he added.
Duterte said in her resignation statement early Friday morning that the public trust on her to lead and serve “cannot be poisoned by political toxicity or undermined by execrable political powerplay.”
Marcos said he understands the vice president’s decision as the latter has to “concentrate on her job” as the Education Secretary and in her new post at the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.
“That’s the way I read it, and it’s true because kung titingnan mo kung anong mga hinaharap niya, talagang marami talaga at hindi niya pwedeng – to be involved in whatever it is that’s going on,” he said.
“Marami talaga siyang gagawin, so I can understand why sasabihin niya ‘Oh sige, ayusin niyo muna ‘yan, gagawin ko muna itong mga importanteng kailangan kong tapusin’,” he added.
House speakership
As to the recent development at the House of Representatives, the president called it “just a part of the reorganization.”
Former President Gloria Arroyo, who was also tapped as senior deputy speaker at the Lower House, was demoted to the deputy speaker post. Deputy Speaker Aurelio Gonzales Jr. was elected to take her post.
“The speaker, it’s his prerogative to what, how he feels the House should be organized. Nangyayari talaga ‘yan,” Marcos said.
“I don’t think any of us know what it all means, where the chips will fall after all of this reorganization… I think we should also be careful to not read too much into it. I really see it as just a run of the mill, comes once in a while,” he added.
Arroyo earlier said she is not planning on becoming a House speaker amid rumors of an ouster plot against incumbent House Speaker Martin Romualdez, the cousin of the president.
“This has been my position ever since Speaker Romualdez was elected in the 19th Congress, and I continue to urge my Lakas-CMD partymates to support our party President in that role,” Arroyo said.
