MANILA: President Rodrigo Duterte
(pic) faces no legal hurdle should he wish to join the Cabinet of his successor President-elect Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., Malacañang said .
Marcos on Thursday said he was “certainly open” to the idea of tapping Duterte as a drug czar.
“There is no legal impediment for a former president to assume an executive position in the executive branch. Actually he can run for office, just no for president again,” said Acting Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Kris Ablan.
“Whether or not President Duterte accepts that, it’s up to him... That is welcome news because the President himself said that the drug fight must be continued” he said.
But Ablan also noted that Duterte, who steps down on June 30, previously said he was “looking forward” to retirement from public office.
Duterte says to prepare ICC defense, go back to Davao
Marcos on Thursday said he met with Duterte “several” times before the May 9 elections and that the latter advised him to continue the anti-narcotics crackdown.
“One thing he was assertive about was to continue the anti-drug syndicate that I started... You may change it but do not leave it because our youth will be pitiful. Their lives will be destroyed,” he added.
The crackdown unleashed in 2016 has killed thousands of suspected drug peddlers and users, and is the subject of a suspended inquiry by the International Criminal Court for possible crimes against humanity.
While Duterte recently admitted it was wrong for him to promise a quick end to the drug war, he also remained unapologetic of the campaign.
Duterte’s father Vicente had served in the Cabinet of Marcos Jr’s father and namesake.
And, party-list group Bayan Muna has blamed Duterte and the alleged massive black propaganda by the government for its failure to secure a seat in Congress during the May 9 elections. Rep. Carlos Zarate lamented how their group lost in the party-list elections – for the first time since joining in 2001 – after getting three slots in the 2019 polls.
“We were also surprised by the result… Weeks leading to the election, the President himself led the campaign against us and all other agencies followed suit,” he told “The Chiefs” over One News on Thursday night.
“No other party-list group faced a campaign with this massive black propaganda, vilification and reg-tagging than Bayan Muna and our colleagues in the Makabayan bloc,” Zarate argued.
The three other groups in the bloc – Gabriela, Kabataan and ACT Teachers – all won and secured one slot each for the incoming 19th Congress.
Zarate believes their group also fell prey to a disinformation drive, citing for instance the fake news that they were disqualified by the Commission on Elections on the eve of the election.
Still, he said Bayan Muna would continue to pursue its advocacies despite losing in the elections.
