VP on calls to resign as housing czar: It’s up to President

Vice President Ma. Leonor “Leni” Robredo and President Rodrigo Duterte meet for the first time on July 1 at Camp Aguinaldo after winning in recently concluded national elections. LENI ROBREDO TWITTER

Vice President Leni Robredo would let President Rodrigo Duterte decide on her fate amid calls for her to quit her post as chair of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council following her criticism of the sudden burial of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

“We serve at the pleasure of the President. Everything is up to the President,” Robredo told reporters after attending an event in Quezon City on Monday.

Human rights lawyer and former senator Rene Saguisag has called on Duterte administration officials opposed to the President’s decision allowing a hero’s burial for Marcos to resign from their posts.

“My advice goes to other members of the government, especially those who were with us in the struggle, that they may consider resigning from their posts. We cannot go on like this, that there is this sense of deja vu of what happened in 1972, and that it took the salvaging of Ninoy Aquino before the Filipino people was awakened. I hope more and more will be made aware of the truth behind all these,” Saguisag said.

Robredo, also a former human rights lawyer,  staunchly opposed the burial of the dictator at the heroes’ cemetery.

Last Friday, the remains of Marcos were secretly airlifted from Batac, Ilocos Norte, to Manila before the funeral. Only the Marcos family, relatives, and select military and police officials were present during the ceremony at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig City.

Robredo said the Marcoses should have waited for the Supreme Court to act on the appeals on its Nov. 8 ruling which upheld Duterte’s order.

“This is nothing new to the Marcoses—they who had hidden wealth, hidden human rights abuses, and now, a hidden burial—with complete disrespect for the rule of law,” Robredo said.

“Once again, we strongly condemn the burial of the former dictator in the Libingan ng mga Bayani. As stated in several decisions from the Supreme Court, Ferdinand Marcos was a thief, a murderer and a dictator,” she said. “He is no hero. If he were, obviously his family would not have to hide his burial like a shameful criminal deed,” Robredo added./rga