The camp of incoming Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo has expressed desire to take her oath at the same time as incoming President Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte even if the two have not yet met each other since winning the May 9 elections.
A member of the vice president-elect’s legislative staff, Mark Blanco, said in an interview that having Duterte and Robredo take their oath together would help unite a divided nation after the May 9 polls.
“We’re of the opinion that it will be good for the country to show unity and a united government coming in on June 30 after a very divisive election,” Blanco told CNN Philippines on Thursday, June 9.
However, Blanco added that the vice president-elect is open to other options, taking her cue from the president-elect on how the ceremonial activities for the oath-taking will proceed.
Robredo’s camp is also studying who is the right person to administer the oath to the vice president-elect since a recently passed law by the Congress allows even a barangay captain to fulfill that task.
In 2010, Benigno Aquino III and Jejomar Binay took their oaths at the same time as president and vice president, respectively, at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila before former Supreme Court Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales.
Both Duterte and Robredo are scheduled to officially assume their respective offices at 12 noon of June 30, Thursday.
It is not yet known when the president-elect and the vice president-elect will finally sit down together to discuss various matters in politics as well as their working relationship with each other.
Duterte has recently declined to give Robredo a Cabinet role, saying that he does not want to offend his friend – Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. – who lost to Robredo by a slim margin in the May vice-presidential election.
Marcos’ camp has implied cheating on the part of Robredo, saying that there might be some anomalies in the counting of the votes. Robredo has denied all accusations and challenged the defeated candidate to show solid evidence of cheating.
Post a Comment