(UPDATE) PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday rejected calls to replace Vice President Sara Duterte as education secretary, saying his working relationship with her would not be affected by his wife’s anger at her.
Speaking to reporters in San Jose, Occidental Mindoro, the President expressed confidence that Duterte would understand how the first lady Liza Araneta-Marcos feels because she is also a wife.
“I don’t see the reason behind that. First of all, my first reaction is what a lucky husband I am that I have a wife who is very protective of me that, even if something bad was said about me, she gets very upset. We cannot blame her,” Marcos said during a chance interview.
President Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr. and Vice President and Concurrent Department of Education Secretary Sara Duterte. PHOTO BY: RENE H. DILAN
“It will not affect our working relationship with the vice president, the secretary of education. I think that she, also as a wife, understands how the first lady feels, when you have to sit there and listen to these attacks that are being made against your husband,” he added.
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The President issued the statement after several lawmakers and groups questioned Duterte’s continued stay in the Cabinet, with some calling for her resignation from the Department of Education (DepEd).
In a joint statement, Mayors Jerry Treñas of Iloilo City and Albee Benitez of Bacolod City called on Duterte to “adhere to the principle of delicadeza” and step down from the Cabinet for attending the Davao rally in which her father accused the President of being a drug addict.
Manila Rep. Joel Chua had also urged Duterte to resign from her post as education chief over her continuing silence on her father’s verbal attacks against the President.
But the President on Tuesday said Duterte would remain in his Cabinet, saying that secretaries would only be replaced if they were not living up to their mandates.
“Any of the Cabinet secretaries will be replaced if they are not doing their job. All the other things are not part of the discussion. If you can no longer do it, you’re sick, just tell us, and we will replace you. If they are no longer performing and are corrupt, we will definitely fire them. And Inday (Duterte) is not like that,” he said.
The President also said that he and Duterte do not need to patch anything, but he would talk with the vice president about the sentiments expressed by the first lady.
“VP Sara and I will talk. She does not have to take it seriously because she was not the one who said those statements. Perhaps these issues will be ironed out easily,” he said.
Marcos also pointed out that the first lady did not come from a political family, justifying her reaction toward the hurtful words and allegations thrown at him by Duterte’s father, former president Rodrigo Duterte.
“I don’t think we need to patch anything up. She understands, as a wife herself, the sentiments of the first lady. Our conversation will be precisely that. I’m sure you’ll understand how she feels,” Marcos said.
“The first lady is not used to politics. While we are already numb over insults. She is not from a political family, so she still needs to learn to let hurtful words pass,” he added.
In an online interview on Friday, the first lady said she felt hurt over the vice president’s reaction after former president Duterte called her husband “bangag” (drug-addled).
She said she took offense when she saw the vice president laughing over the remark at a rally in Davao City in late January to oppose efforts to amend the 1987 Constitution.
“I was hurt because my husband will do everything to protect you. You ran together during the elections, right — we will rise together,” the first lady said.
“You went to a rally, then the President gets called bangag, and then you’re going to laugh? Is that right? Even Leni [Robredo] never did that,” she added.
Even after the first lady’s remarks, Marcos and Duterte were seen being friendly toward each other at the graduation ceremony of the Philippine National Police Academy in Silang, Cavite on Friday.
The two leaders were spotted exchanging smiles before Marcos bussed Duterte on the cheek. They also sat next to each other on the stage and were also seen conversing.
On Monday, the vice president acknowledged the resentment of the first lady but said that the latter’s personal feelings have nothing to do with her mandate as the country’s second-highest government official.
“As a human being, it is first lady Liza Marcos’ right to feel resentment and anger,” Duterte said in Filipino. “But her personal feelings have nothing to do with my mandate as a government official.”
“In order for us to move forward, we will leave it to a private conversation between President “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and me to determine what the next steps will be,” she added.
The vice president told the public that the country is facing big problems that need to be resolved by the government.
“We should be focused on addressing the problems faced by our country,” she said.
Marcos and Duterte won the 2022 national elections after running as a tandem under a campaign banner called “UniTeam.”
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