BEIJING: President Duterte has introduced former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., who is part of the Philippine delegation in Beijing, as the possible new vice-president of the country.
Meeting with the Filipino community in this Chinese capital last Wednesday, Duterte reportedly said the only son and namesake of the late dictator could take the place of Vice-President Leni Robredo.
“If he wins in his protest, we might have a new vice president,” Philippine Star quoted Duterte as saying while referring to Marcos’ electoral protest filed before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal.
Duterte reportedly said this while introducing the members of his delegation for his four-day state visit here including Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay Jr., Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez and Presidential Communications Office Secretary Martin Andanar.
It is not clear why Marcos is part of the Philippine delegation here. He is challenging his loss to Robredo, the Liberal Party’s vice presidential candidate, by a narrow margin of over 200,000 votes, the report said.
Cayetano, Duterte’s running mate and now chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, was a distant third with 5.9 million votes.
Robredo is now part of the Duterte Cabinet as chief of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council.
