VP: First lady’s ‘feelings’ have ‘nothing to do with my mandate’

VP Sara Duterte INDAY SARA DUTERTE FB PAGE               First lady Liza Araneta-Marcos

MANILA, Philippines — The first lady’s “personal feelings” are irrelevant to the vice president’s mandate.

Vice President Sara Duterte conveyed such message in a video message released on Monday to the media. It was also posted on her social media accounts.

Duterte had kept a low profile during the weekend following Friday’s interview featuring first lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, wherein she revealed her resentment toward Duterte and her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte.

READ: First lady bares beef with Sara for laughing at ‘addict’ claim

In her message in Filipino, the vice president said, “As a human being, the first lady has a right to [harbor] ill feelings and anger.”

“But her personal feelings have nothing to do with my mandate as an official of the government,” Duterte said.

This was her first time to respond to Araneta-Marcos’ exclusive interview with broadcaster Anthony Taberna, as posted on his social media accounts, after reporters repeatedly sought the Vice President’s remarks during the weekend.

‘Bangag’

In that interview, Araneta-Marcos referred to the rally led by the Dutertes in their bailiwick of Davao City, which was timed with the “Bagong Pilipinas” (New Philippines) rally of President Marcos on Jan. 28.

The Vice President had stopped by the Bagong Pilipinas rally before flying to Davao City where her father led his rally. There, he unleashed a slew of criticisms against Marcos and also accused him of being a “drug addict (bangag) before and a drug addict now that he’s President.”

According to Araneta-Marcos, she saw in a video of the rally the Vice President laughing at her father’s bangag remark.

“You went to a rally where your President was called a drug addict, then you’re going to laugh? Is that the right thing to do?” the first lady said in the interview.

“Even Leni never did that,” she added, referring to former Vice President Leni Robredo, an opponent of Marcos in the 2016 vice presidential race.

Araneta-Marcos said the young Duterte “crossed the line” that moment.

“I mean, for me, I was hurt because my husband will do everything to protect [the Vice President]. [They] ran together, right?” she told Taberna.

‘Private conversation’

Since then she would snub Duterte on the occasions that they were together, such as when the Vice President and other officials saw the first couple off during their departure for Vietnam the day after the Bagong Pilipinas and Davao City rallies.

Duterte did not take up the details of the Araneta-Marcos interview in her video message. Instead, she said, she will leave that matter to a “private conversation” with the President, “so we can move forward” and “determine the next steps.”

She said there were other matters needing the government’s attention.

“My brothers and sisters, our country faces the biggest problems that the government must resolve,” the vice president said in Cebuano.

She said these problems are inflation, hunger, poverty, inadequate water and power, criminality, terrorism, insurgency and the “proliferation once again of illegal drugs.”

“We should focus on these [issues] facing our country,” Duterte said. “Let us put the Philippines first.”

VP ‘has a choice’

Meanwhile, former Sen. Leila de Lima joined the call by some lawmakers urging Duterte to resign from the Marcos Cabinet where she serves as education secretary.

“Her loyalties are very clear. They remain with her family who called [the President] names and called for his ouster,” De Lima said in a statement.

“She is having her cake and eating it, too. Namamangka sa dalawang ilog (Sailing on two rivers),” she added.

The vice president “has a choice,” the former senator said: “Join the rallies but resign, or don’t resign but condemn the [anti-Marcos] rallies and tell her family to stop [attacking Mr. Marcos].”

De Lima, who was jailed during the Duterte administration for her alleged involvement in the drug trade, said it was not surprising that the elder Duterte is now attacking his successor.

“There’s no line to cross for [the former president]. A man who does not see anything wrong in killing people has no line to cross. Anything goes when it comes to [him],” she said.

“If there is any line for [him],” she pointed out, “he [had] crossed it a long time ago the moment he told the Armed Forces of the Philippines that their Commander in Chief is an addict.”

—WITH A REPORT FROM MARLON RAMOS