Marcos: I don’t consider ex-Pres. Duterte my political enemy

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Friday local time said he does not see his predecessor former President Rodrigo Duterte as his political enemy, as he defended the 60-day preventive suspension of Davao del Norte Governor Edwin Jubahib.

Asked to comment on recent remarks made by Duterte, Marcos said cases against Jubahib were above board, and were thoroughly investigated before the suspension order was made by the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

“I think he is an experienced lawyer. If he wants, I’ll send him all of the court records and all of the discussions dahil matagal na ‘yan (this has been for a long time). Some of these cases were filed before I took office, so it’s taken two years because it went through the process,” he said.

This comes after Duterte on Thursday criticized Marcos over Jubahib’s 60-day preventive suspension, even floating the possibility of the two being “political enemies” moving forward.

“Hindi ko kalaban si Marcos, pero (Marcos is not my opponent but) along the way, magkakalaban talaga kami (we will really become rivals). We will be political enemies… You cannot remove that kind of situation,” Duterte said.

According to Marcos, he only learned about the case about a year ago as part of his daily briefer, and records could be accessed for anyone to investigate the matter.

“I’m very sure we did all, we went through all of the checks and balances, we went through all of the proper procedures before we came to the decision — before the DILG came to the decision of imposing a suspension,” he said.

“That’s his (Duterte’s) view. I don’t consider him a political enemy. Takes two to tango. I don’t consider him a political enemy,” he added.

Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin on Saturday maintained that there was no violation of right to due process after Jubahib was placed under preventive suspension.

Jubahib was suspended amid complaints of alleged “misuse of authority, potential oppression, and the utilization of government funds to advance the interests of a private company.”

The suspension order was signed by the executive secretary.

For his part, Jubahib said the suspension was “pure political harassment” as he vowed not to step down, adding that he could have earned the ire of some officials for exposing the “ayuda scam” linked to some of his political opponents “who have access to Malacañang.” —KG, GMA Integrated News