Bongbong open to joining Duterte Cabinet

Former senator and defeated vice presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is open to joining President Duterte’s Cabinet, but so far he has not been invited.

“If the President asks you to serve in whatever capacity, hindi mo pupuwedeng tanggihan. Siyempre para sa bansa yan (you can’t refuse, of course it’s for the country) and of course I’d be happy, I’d be proud, I’d be honored to serve in any position in the Duterte administra- tion,” Marcos told ABS-CBN in in Lubao, Pampanga where he joined the 70th birthday celebration of former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

“I have not spoken to the President for a... few weeks now so, and never pa namin napagusapan ang kahit na anong klaseng (we’ve never discussed any kind of) appointment,” he said.

There were speculations that Duterte fired local government secretary Ismael Sueno to give way to the appointment of Marcos as his replacement.

The one-year ban on the appointment of election losers ends next month. The President had said Marcos was not interested in an appointment, as it would mean abandoning his election protest against Vice President Leni Robredo.

Robredo beat him in the May 2016 elections by about 200,700 votes. Marcos said he does not believe that joining the Cabinet would mean abandonment of his protest against Robredo.

“I guess I’ll leave that to the lawyers to study, pero pagkaalam ko (as far as I know) it is only during an election that you are abandoning,” he said.

“But don’t worry, I won’t stop until all the votes you gave me have been counted, and we will bring that out in the open,” he told the crowd gathered for Arroyo’s birthday celebration. He also apologized to them for the “uncounted” votes in last year’s vice presidential elections.

On threats by Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez to have Robredo impeached, Marcos said at the very least, the Vice President was “unpatriotic and disloyal to the Philippines” when she made her video address before the UN criticizing Duterte’s brutal campaign against drugs.

“But it is a matter of opinion whether she should be impeached,” Marcos said.

The Vice President denounced the unabated extrajudicial killings in the drug war in her UN message. Alvarez wanted Robredo impeached for allegedly betraying public trust.

Alvarez made the threat a day after Rep. Gary Alejano of party-list group Magdalo filed an impeachment case against Duterte for allegedly pursuing a state policy of killing drug suspects and supposedly amassing P2 billion in illegal wealth. The President has denied the accusations.

Robredo, meanwhile, slammed Marcos for apologizing to residents of Pampanga for their “uncounted” votes.