Justice Secretary Leila de Lima. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said she does not see any need to leave the Department of Justice at this time.
De Lima issued the statement following calls for members of the Aquino cabinet aspiring to run in next year’s election to resign from their post as early as now.
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“Unlike the Vice President, I have not yet started campaigning, much less declare my candidacy for any office. In the first place, the Vice President has resigned out of political expediency, not because of his intention to run for President. If that was his reason for resigning, he should have resigned from the Cabinet as early as five years ago the moment he declared for the 2016 presidential race,” De Lima said in a text message Thursday.
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“And it has become evident that he also had to resign in order to go full blast in condemning this administration which he was part of for five years, and which he now faults for his own troubles with the law insofar as his graft cases are concerned,” she added.
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Aside from De Lima, the other Cabinet members prominently mentioned as probable 2016 candidates are Department of the Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II, the presumptive standard bearer of the administration party, Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority Director General Joel Villanueva.
Calls for their resignation instead of waiting for the filing of the certificate of candidacy in October grew after Binay resigned his post Monday as Presidential Adviser on OFW Concerns and Chairman of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council.
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In a recent Pulse Asia senatorial survey, De Lima ranked 7th to 14th places with 38.7 percent in voter’s senatorial preference.
De Lima said she is still consulting friends and family.