Marcos ‘too busy’ to mind Sara’s trial

If presidents could prop up a political ally or immobilize an enemy, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he would choose not to do either — referring to Vice President Sara Duterte.

The President made the assertion in a podcast where he maintained that he had no role in the impeachment of Duterte by the House of Representatives or her trial by the Senate.

Marcos said he’s too busy tending to the problems of the nation to bother with Duterte, a former running mate and ally in the 2022 election.

“I’m busy with the transport, with the rice, with all the different things that we are doing. My time is consumed by these things. To put it bluntly, I don’t have a role in the impeachment,” he said.

Marcos emphasized that the impeachment process rested with the Senate as the impeachment court and the House as the prosecuting body.

Duterte supporters have insisted that the impeachment of the Vice President was masterminded by Marcos to eliminate her as a presidential candidate in 2028.

The President’s cousin, House Speaker Martin Romualdez, is being touted as the candidate of the Marcos administration three years down the road. Romualdez’s camp, however, said he is not interested in a higher post.

The rift between Marcos and Duterte had widened in recent months, marked by political distance, power plays, and legal maneuvers.

A major flashpoint was the Marcos administration’s overt cooperation with the International Criminal Court in its case against former President Rodrigo Duterte over alleged crimes against humanity during his war on drugs.

Marcos would later “reward” General Nicolas Torre III with an appointment as chief of the Philippine National Police over his role in the forcible extradition of former president Duterte to The Hague to stand trial at the ICC.

The Senate has since returned the articles of impeachment to the House, effectively stalling the impeachment trial.

Last week, the Office of the Ombudsman initiated a separate probe, directing the Vice President to respond to charges that include malversation, perjury, bribery and plunder.

In the 2022 elections, Duterte won more votes than Marcos — 32.2 million to his 31.6 million.

She has also outpaced Marcos in recent public opinion surveys. In the last Pulse Asia poll, Duterte posted a 50-percent trust rating, far ahead of Marcos’s 32 percent.

Other government leaders, such as Romualdez and Senate President Chiz Escudero, were not included in the survey.

In the Pulse Asia survey conducted in March and released in April, Marcos saw declining numbers.

He received identical approval and trust ratings of 25 percent, with 53 percent disapproving of his performance and 54 percent expressing “little or no trust.”

Romualdez posted just 14 percent for both approval and trust, with 54 percent disapproval and 57 percent distrust.

Duterte, on the other hand, garnered 59 percent approval, with only 16 percent disapproval. Her trust rating stood at 61 percent, with the same 16 percent expressing distrust.

She is accused of grave abuse of discretion in the use of confidential funds, as well as threatening the lives of the President, First Lady and Romualdez.