President Duterte No Longer Trusts Vice President Robredo, Says Palace

President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to Vice President Leni Robredo not to attend the Cabinet meetings might be an indication that he no longer trusts her, a Palace official said on Monday.

Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said the President’s little confidence and trust with Robredo might be the reason why he had instructed Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr. to inform her that she is banned from the succeeding Cabinet meetings.

“Reading between the lines, it saying that the President no longer has the confidence and the trust to be in one room with the Vice President, and that is the official meeting between the President and Cabinet officials. That’s the Cabinet meeting,” Andanar said in an exclusive interview with CNN Philippines.

Following Duterte’s instruction, Robredo resigned as the chairperson of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC). The Vice President’s resignation letter was already received by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea.

Robredo said it would be “impossible” for her to do her duty as HUDCC chair, now that she has been barred from attending Cabinet meetings.

Furthermore, Andanar said the different viewpoints of the two highest officials may have been the reason why the working relationship between the two has been affected.

He then echoed Evasco’s earlier statement that Duterte and Robredo have “irreconcilable differences” and that the two don’t see “eye to eye,” citing the issues on the hero’s burial of the late President Ferdinand Marcos and the administration’s war on drugs.

Andanar, who was “surprised” by the decision of the Vice President to quit her post, said it would now be up to the President whether he would accept her resignation.

Meanwhile, the President’s communications chief dismissed speculation that there is plot to oust Robredo.

Robredo claimed that the “event of recent days” only proved that the intention to remove her from vice presidency is “now being set into motion.”

However, Andanar said the Duterte administration has no hand in dismissing public officials.

“Number one, that is speculation from the camp of the Vice President. That is for them to sort on that kind of speculation. It’s not the job of Cabinet officials and the administration to fire public officials,” Andanar said.

“Our job is to institute reforms in this government and the best person to ask that question is the Vice President herself,” he added.

Source: Sunstar