FILE PHOTO: Vice President Leni Robredo during a debate organized by the Commission on Elections. Photo from VPLR Media Bureau
MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo’s office is ready for a transition with ‘whoever’ gets proclaimed as the new vice president, her spokesperson said on Thursday.
According to lawyer Barry Gutierrez, they are preparing for the end of Robredo’s term on June 30, but nobody has reached out to them yet.
Gutierrez said this during an interview with OnePH’s Sa Totoo Lang, while current partial and unofficial tallies from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) show Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio leading in the vice presidential race.
“Well, naghahanda na rin. Unang una, kailangan siyempreng maayos ang lagay ng opisina para sa katapusan ng termino ni VP Leni sa June 30. Sa aking pagkakaalam, hindi pa naman nagre-reach out anybody, tama lang dahil wala pa namang proclamation na nangyayari,” he said.
(Well, we are preparing too. First of all, we need to set in order the office by the end of VP Leni’s term on June 30. As far as I can recall, nobody has reached out to us, which is only correct because no proclamation has been made.)
“But definitely, ‘yung OVP, bilang opisina ay handa na at patuloy na naghahanda for the transition. At kung sino man ang magde-declare na ating bagong Bise Presidente ay kami ay makikipagtrabaho, kami ay makikipagtulungan, to make the transition as smooth and as easy as possible,” Gutierrez said.
(But definitely, the OVP as an office is prepared and is continuing to prepare for the transition. And we would work and help whoever is declared as the vice president, and we will make the transition as smooth and as easy as possible.)
Robredo, who ran for president, will end her term on June 30. Earlier, Gutierrez said that they will accept whatever the results of the elections are, but stressed that they want some issues addressed, too.
Currently, Duterte-Carpio leads Robredo’s running mate Senator Francis Pangilinan in the partial and unofficial results from Comelec’s transparency server, 31.55 million votes to 9.230 million votes.
The story is almost similar to the presidential race; Duterte-Carpio’s presidential bet former senator Bongbong Marcos now has over 31.09 million votes or double Robredo’s 14.81 million votes.
Robredo has yet to concede from the presidential race, but there were indications that she will accept the results of the polls. In a Facebook live early Tuesday morning — hours after the elections and after initial and unofficial results were transmitted — Robredo said that they will listen to the people’s voice.
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