I am not aware of, much less am I involved in, any effort to “oust” the President.
This is a bold-faced lie. Her biggest campaign contributor and political surrogate Loida Lewis has been openly calling for Duterte to resign. Leni is arrogant enough to pretend that we cannot see through her lies.
Furthermore, I categorically deny joining rallies that called for the President’s ouster.
Ok this is true, she was never seen in any of the major anti-Marcos rallies that also openly asked Duterte to leave office. So their logic is – since Leni was not physically seen in the rallies means she does not agree with calls for Duterte to leave office. Sounds thin to me. She has never publicly come out to chastise Loida Lewis or any of the Liberal Party leaders who have openly asked Duterte to leave office. That is the best way to show where she stands on the issue of Duterte being removed from office. Not being seen in the rallies says nothing about her real intentions.
Criticism is not conspiracy, and the administration is well advised to stop seeing “plots” behind every unflattering news report, irate citizens’ assembly, or angry Facebook post.
When the President lost his trust on her as a member of his Cabinet, Leni came up with a conspiracy theory herself that the administration’s move was part of a plot to steal the Vice Presidency. She should practice what she preaches. Just because she was exiled from the Cabinet, which the President was not required to give to her, does not mean there is a plot to steal the Vice Presidency from her. Secondly, her election into that office is being questioned so there is still legal uncertainty to her legitimacy. However, the call for Duterte to step down – from her own political party and her political donors – is the most illegitimate call of all and she never said anything to stop it or to disavow such calls.
The President and I both took an oath to uphold the Constitution and I take this very seriously.
If she takes the constitution seriously then she should disavow any calls from the Liberal Party and her political donors for Duterte to resign. She never said anything about this.
It is the right of every citizen in our democracy to express her opinion, and this includes those critical of or in opposition to an incumbent government. This principle is a cornerstone of our free Republic.
Yes it is the right of every citizen to express their opinion. Since when did Duterte take this right away from anyone? or her? Were people not able to openly protest against Duterte? Were people not able to openly call for Duterte’s removal from office? Just look at Leila Delima and how the administration allowed her to go on an international trip that provided her with a platform to spread her lies. Leni is once again trying to spread a false narrative that life as a critic of the Duterte administration is hard. This is a big fat lie.
To my understanding, many criticisms of the President have come about as a reaction to his own actions and statements – the Marcos burial at Libingan ng mga Bayani, the ongoing extrajudicial killings, the proposed restoration of the death penalty, and the retreat from our West Philippine Sea claims, among others.
Yes it is true that President Duterte is getting a lot of criticism because of the things she mentioned but Duterte has never stopped anyone from criticizing him for his decisions. Yes Duterte does not listen to criticism when he makes his decision but that is not a sign that he does not respect the “corner stone” of democracy. Leni forgets that one can openly criticize and that is protected by the constitution but the constitution does not guarantee your criticism will be heard. You cannot expect the President to change his mind every time a group of incorrigible brats rally in the streets. In this part of her statement Leni also promotes another false narrative – that President Duterte has retreated from our West Philippine Sea claims. Has there been any proclamation from the Administration stating that we have given up our claim? The Duterte administration has pivoted to China but there is no truth to her statement that we have given up on our claim. In fact, the bi-lateral agreements the administration signed with China during Duterte’s state visit had no binding agreements on the issue of who has rights over the West Philippine Sea. I don’t believe Leni is misinformed about such an important fact so the only explanation is that she is lying through her teeth.
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