Former President and Now Congresswoman Arroyo sees the resignation of Robredo as something that is not surprising given the differences between the President and his Vice.
Former President and now Pampanga 2nd District Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo calls the resignation of Vice President Leni Robredo as something which is inevitable.
Arroyo said on Monday, on the same day that Robredo tendered her resignation, that Robredo’s resignation as the chairperson of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) is not surprising at all, given her political differences with President Rodrigo Duterte.
“The resignation was inevitable because of their divergence on so many important issues”, Arroyo said in a press conference on Monday.
The former chief executive recalled the time when she was the vice president under the administration of former President, now Manila City Mayor Joseph Estrada and served as his social welfare secretary.
Arroyo recalled herself making critical remarks about Estrada and she could no longer avoid the conflicts, when the allegations about Estrada’s pocketing of jueteng payoffs broke out in 2001, she tendered her resignation.
According to Congresswoman Arroyo, political differences are acceptable reason for a president to cut ties with the members of his or her Cabinet.
She recalled that when she rose to presidency, she had her own issues and divergence of issues with some members of her Cabinet.
“So as president, if you have a Cabinet member who has a difference in important issues with you, then you have to let the Cabinet member go, no matter what your personal respect is or affection for the Cabinet member”, she said.
Meanwhile, the Pampanga representative shrugged off criticism being thrown at Duterte for giving Robredo the order to stop attending Cabinet meetings through text message, recalling herself doing the same thing to “a senior official, chairman of the board”, who she refused to name.
As a former president, she told the reporters, that “it has been done before”.