President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said that Vice President Sara Duterte has the prerogative to apologize to Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) members for asking them to support his candidacy in the 2022 elections.
In a media interview on Wednesday, September 4, Marcos said he could not understand why the Vice President apologized to the KOJC, but he seemed largely indifferent to her remarks.
“That’s her prerogative. I still don’t understand why but ‘yun ang — that is her… It is her wish. Wala tayong magagawa,” Marcos said.
During the 39th founding anniversary of KOJC in Davao City, Duterte apologized to the thousands of members, acknowledging that she had wrongly assumed she and Marcos shared a common goal of unity and continuity.
This apology followed a large-scale search operation by the Philippine National Police at the KOJC compound for Pastor Apollo Quiboloy, who is currently facing abuse and trafficking charges in Davao City and Pasig courts.
Duterte stepped down as Secretary of Education on June 19, effectively departing from Marcos’ Cabinet, and was succeeded by former Senator Sonny Angara a month later.
Since then, the vice president has started publicly criticizing the Marcos administration.
Marcos also revealed that he has had no recent communication with Duterte since her resignation.
“No, not at all. Not at all. The last time I spoke to her was when she handed me her resignation. Since then, we haven’t spoken,” Marcos said.
When asked about the budget hearings in the Office of the Vice President and threats of impeachment against Duterte might be politically motivated, Marcos said there were political undertones in the process.
For context, a heated exchange occurred between Duterte and the lawmakers during the Office of the Vice President’s budget briefing in the House of Representatives on August 27. Duterte avoided questions regarding her P2.037-billion budget request for the upcoming year and her previous confidential expenses.
Instead, she questioned House rules, interrupted the presiding officer, Marikina 2nd District Representative Stella Quimbo, and demanded her replacement. Duterte also accused leftist lawmakers of being red-tagged and alleged that House members were orchestrating an impeachment plot against her and had been working to tarnish her reputation since the previous year.
“This is something that every single government agency has to do. So it’s a hearing. There’s no politics in it. We do it every year. We do it with the same department. We do it. That process is well-established. It has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with the budget,” Marcos said in the same media interview.
“I don’t know how she can characterize these things which is essentially an information gathering exercise for the House and for the Senate so that they know what the budget will look like,” he added. (TCSP)
