Bersamin reminds Panelo of how Robredo was treated

Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin —House of Representatives photo

MANILA, Philippines — Remember what you did to Leni?

This was Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin’s message to the allies of the Duterte family after former chief presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo described Vice President Sara Duterte’s removal from the National Security Council (NSC) as an “ill-advised presidential move” that smacked of “dirty politics.”

At a Palace briefing on Tuesday, Bersamin said Panelo “has no moral authority to question the decision of [President Marcos]” since Panelo also “advocated” for the removal of then Vice President Leni Robredo from the NSC during the administration of then-President Rodrigo Duterte, the incumbent Vice President’s father.

READ: Marcos drops VP Duterte, former presidents in NSC revamp

Over the weekend, Panelo said Executive Order No. 81, which reorganized the NSC to remove the vice president and past presidents as members, was a “brazen measure to diminish the political star power” of the younger Duterte and that the removal of past presidents from the council was to “deodorize” Duterte’s exclusion to make it appear that she was not being targeted.

Reacting to Bersamin’s remarks, Panelo said the Palace official was “misinformed” and stressed that he “never advocated” for Robredo’s exclusion from the NSC.

“She was in fact invited [to] and attended the National Security Council meeting in July 2016 together with four living presidents at that time during the Duterte presidency,” Panelo said in a statement on Tuesday.

How they treated her

On July 27, 2016, an NSC meeting in Malacañang brought together Rodrigo Duterte, former Presidents Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and Benigno Aquino III. Robredo was also present.

But in December 2016, Robredo said then Cabinet Secretary Jun Evasco Jr. relayed President Duterte’s instruction, given through former special assistant and now Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go, for her to “desist from attending all Cabinet meetings.”

In light of this instruction, Robredo resigned from the Cabinet on Dec. 5, 2016, saying Duterte’s act made it “impossible” for her to perform her duties.

Almost three years later, on Oct. 31, 2019, Duterte designated Robredo as cochair of the Inter-agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs, a Cabinet rank that would allow her to again join Cabinet meetings.

Robredo was appointed on Nov. 5 that year, days after Duterte offered to make her his so-called drug czar with “full powers” to run the antinarcotics campaign for six months.

But a few weeks later, Duterte fired her from the post, with Panelo then explaining that it was Duterte’s response to the supposed dare of the opposition to fire Robredo for a lack of trust.

Full trust, confidence

According to Bersamin, Marcos, as Commander in Chief, has the right and responsibility to ensure that his advisers have his “fullest trust and confidence.”

“I’m not saying that the Vice President does not anymore deserve to be trusted. But I’m just saying that with the recent developments, it is not going to be good advice or good action on the part of the President to still have her onboard,” he said.

The President, he stressed, has the “absolute power of reorganization” and that he can “choose the people he listens to or he would listen to.”

“So if the NSC is supposed to be including members who are trusted by the President, then let it be understood in that line. There’s nothing personal here, but my statement before was, the Vice President has ceased to be relevant as far as the responsibilities of that membership in the National Security Council is concerned,” he added.

Malicious

In the briefing, Bersamin also clapped back at another Duterte ally, saying it was malicious for Marcos critics to see the NSC revamp as a prelude to martial law.

“If you will always think that way, that’s malicious. Because the 1987 Constitution is very clear when a President may declare martial law. I don’t think it is in the mind of the President right now,” Bersamin, a former Supreme Court chief justice, said.

He was referring to statements made by former Palace spokesperson Harry Roque, who warned that the NSC revamp could later see Marcos repeating what his late father did—reorganizing the NSC thrice before declaring martial law in 1972.

Legacy projects

Bersamin stressed that the President’s topmost concerns are the economy, the people’s health and welfare, and the completion of his “legacy projects.”

“The President accepts that as the No. 1 concern. It’s not about martial law; it’s not about extending himself in power—no, he has no thinking about that. He does not even think in those terms. Mr. Harry Roque is being malicious,” he said.

Threats to President

Duterte’s exclusion from the NSC came in the wake of her expletive-ridden tirade against President Marcos, first lady Liza Araneta-Marcos, and Speaker Martin Romualdez and her instructions to have them killed in case of her death.

In response, NSC Director General and National Security Adviser Eduardo Año said the agency considered all threats to the President as serious and a matter of national security and that the NSC would investigate the threats against members of the first family.

Duterte later questioned why she had not been invited to NSC meetings since she assumed office in June 2022. —with a report from Inquirer Research