SHOULD he win as vice president in next year’s election, Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said Tuesday he sees no problem working with whoever is elected as president.
Marcos’ statement sounds like a tall order considering that relationship between past Philippine vice presidents and presidents has been marked by active dislike and distrust.
From the time of Vice President Salvador Laurel to Jejomar Binay, newspapers and TV prime-time news carried stories about antagonistic relationship of presidents and their “spare tires” in many occasions. In the late ’80s, the Cory Aquino administration once called Vice President Laurel “langaw” and in the late 90s, then President Joseph Estrada mocked Vice President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as “Gloria who?”
Even the senator’s father, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, couldn’t stand his vice president that he took a bold step in abolishing the position in 1972.
But the younger Marcos vowed to break this cycle and work his way to become part of the president’s inner circle, if elected.
“I don’t think I’ll have any problem working with any of the presidential candidates or prospective presidential candidates,” Marcos said on Tuesday after filing his certificate of candidacy (COC) for the vice presidential post at the main office of the Commission on Elections in Intramuros, Manila.
He is running as an independent candidate.
The Vice President must provide support and assistance to the President but must also “try to influence policy in ways you see best,” Marcos said.
Although there might be times that he and the elected president may disagree on certain issues, Marcos was certain that “there’s no one that I cannot work with.”
“That’s just not part of my thinking,” he said.
Marcos, the son and namesake of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, was the seventh to file the certificate of candidacy for vice president on the second day of the candidates’ registration at the Commission on Elections.
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