Marcos comes to Sara’s defense
He said it is not the role of the Vice President or the Secretary of Education to talk about China.
Daily TribuneHe said it is not the role of the Vice President or the Secretary of Education to talk about China.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has defended Vice President Sara Duterte over her silence on China’s growing aggression in the West Philippine Sea, assuring the public they were on the “same page” in addressing the country’s challenges in its exclusive economic zone.
“It’s not the Vice President’s place. That’s not the role of the Vice President or the Secretary of Education to talk about China, so I think we are all in line,” Marcos said in a media interview on the sidelines of his Washington visit on Friday (local time).
“I’m very sure that if Inday Sara had some very serious misgivings about what we are doing in terms of foreign policies, she would bring that to me,” he added.
Marcos said he and Duterte were only concerned about their jobs as the country’s two highest officials.
“That’s a good policy. So, I don’t think it is something that we need to be concerned with,” he noted.
In a previous media interview, Duterte declined to comment when asked about China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the WPS.
Marcos’ defense of the Vice President came amid his recent squabble with her father and his predecessor, former President Rodrigo Duterte, regarding the latter’s gentleman’s agreement with China on the WPS.
China’s investments
Meanwhile, Marcos shrugged off speculations that the Philippines’ trilateral agreement with the United States and Japan would affect China’s investments in the country.
“This (trilateral agreement) is separate from any proposed or potential Chinese investments in the Philippines. How do I see it, how will it affect me? I don’t see that it will affect one way or the other,” he said.
Marcos is in the US, where he had a trilateral meeting with US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, where they discussed their common vision for the Indo-Pacific region.
He said forging a “strong trilateral alliance” with the US and Japan would enhance trilateral cooperation across the three nations’ various areas of mutual interest.
He added that it will define the future of the Indo-Pacific under a more robust economic, security, and defense structure.