Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Malacañang on Monday said it had not yet received former President Fidel Ramos’ letter resigning his appointment as the Duterte administration’s special envoy to China.
“We have not received PFVR’s resignation,” Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said in a text message.
“Moreover, it is not true that the former president can no longer have any role in our engagement with China,” he added.
Andanar said Ramos’ “stature and expertise are needed now, more than ever, to follow up and [build] on what President Duterte accomplished during his recent visit to China.”
Earlier on Monday, a GMA News report said Ramos had resigned as special envoy, a post he accepted only last July.
Ramos said he resigned when President Rodrigo Duterte returned to the country from his state visit to China.
The former President, whom Duterte had acknowledged as convincing him to run, has criticized Duterte and his Cabinet in a series of strongly worded opinion pieces in the Manila Bulletin.
Ramos even likened the Philippines to a “sinking ship” under Duterte’s leadership.
The former chief executive voiced his opposition to Duterte’s “separation” and repeated tirades against the United States and his refusal to accept the Paris climate change pact reached in December 2015.
Talks were rife that Mr. Duterte’s abrasive behavior towards the United States and the United Nations did not sit well with the former president, a retired Philippine Constabulary general and former AFP chief of staff.
On Saturday, Ramos criticized the President’s opposition to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, dismissing it as “obviously wrong and full of S…T!!!” —With a report from Marlon Ramos