Senator Leila de Lima alleged that President Rodrigo Duterte has a “malevolent” plan to unseat Vice President Leni Robredo and replace her with Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr.
In a statement, de Lima claimed that Duterte is demolishing Robredo’s public image to make it easier to sell Marcos to the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), the deciding body which will settle Marcos’ claims that Robredo cheated in the 2016 national elections.
“Duterte has several ideas how he will be replaced in case he decides to step down before his term ends. He has expressed his preference for Bongbong Marcos, Chiz Escudero, a military junta [but] none of them include the constitutional mode of succession, which is the only legal way of replacing him,” she said in her recent Dispatch from Camp Crame.
De Lima said that Marcos’ chance to grab the vice presidency is getting higher because Duterte is replacing old justices by his appointees in the Supreme Court.
“Now, more than ever, citizens must rely on their own organic power to thwart any attempt to undermine constitutional democracy and to foist Duterte’s illegitimate choice of successor upon the Filipino people,” she said.
