Duterte can work `more comfortably’

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte can now be able to perform his mandate well as the country’s highest leader, after Vice President Leni Robredo decided to give up her Cabinet post, a Palace official said yesterday.

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella believes that the President will be able to work “more comfortably” since the vice president, who belongs to opposition Liberal Party, has been removed from the Cabinet.

“From his (Duterte’s) perspective, of course, he’s able to work more comfortably,” Abella told reporters, when asked what gains Duterte will get following Robredo’s resignation as housing czar.

Robredo submitted on Monday a letter to the Office of the President, expressing her intent to resign as the chairperson of the Housing Urban Development and Coordinating Council.

In her resignation letter, the Vice President said that banning her from all Cabinet meetings “has effectively made it impossible for [her] to do [her] job.”

Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said Duterte told Robredo not to attend Cabinet meetings because the Chief Executive no longer trusts her.

Abella said there was nothing wrong with the President’s order since he has the prerogative to unseat any Cabinet official who he thinks would be a liability to his administration.

“The relationship between Cabinet members and the President is based on relationship and based on trust. And should the President come to the point where he feels that he cannot fully work with or is uncomfortable with a particular Cabinet secretary, then, it is his prerogative to release such a member,” he said.