Former President Fidel V. Ramos and Joseph Estrada join President-elect Rodrigo Roa Duterte at the inaugural ceremony held at the Rizal Hall of Malacañan Palace. Beside are Senate President Franklin Drilon and House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. MALACAÑANG POOL PHOTO
Liberal Party stalwart and outgoing Speaker Feliciano Belmonte believes that in time, President Rodrigo Duterte will be ready to work with Vice President Leni Robredo.
“If he is presiding over a divided country, of course he does not want that. He can do it,” Belmonte told reporters after Robredo took her oath at the Quezon City Reception House on Thursday morning.
But Belmonte couldn’t say if Duterte would eventually give Robredo a post in his Cabinet.
“I don’t know about that because Cabinet posts are not the only things that are ways of serving the people. That’s just a convenient way of serving the people. But there are other posts that are equally helpful to the people,” he said.
LP’s “Daang Matuwid” coalition spokesperson and Akbayan Rep. Barry Gutierrez, however, believes that if capability is the criteria, Robredo deserves to have a Cabinet post.
“But at the end of the day, the President appoints whoever he wants to appoint,” Gutierrez said in an interview at the vice presidential inauguration.
“That’s his prerogative under the constitution and we respect that but regardless of an appointment or lack of an appointment, VP Leni will continue to do the job that she was elected to do which is to fulfill her promise to the people who expect her to focus on the needs of the people in the margins, the people who have been ignored,” he added.
Earlier in his interviews, Duterte said he was not considering giving Robredo a Cabinet post, saying her rival in the VP race, Senator Bongbong Marcos, was “his friend.”
He added there was no law requiring the vice president to be a member of the Cabinet. TVJ/rga
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