Caloocan City Rep. Edgar Erice urged Malacañang on Monday to make public the state of health of President Rodrigo Duterte because it was vital for the country’s stability.
He made the call following reports that Duterte was recently flown to Mount Elizabeth Medical Center in Singapore to receive liver treatment, but the Palace denied it.
Malacañang denied the reports despite the circulation of alleged photos of Senator Bong Go with various chat groups showing a background of the hospital.
“It is necessary for the stability of the country to clarify the state of health of the President if he was really hospitalized,” Erice said.
“During the time of FVR [Fidel V. Ramos], Malacañang briefed then VP [Vice President] Erap [Joseph Estrada] and prepared him for a possible transition if something happened to FVR in his carotid operation.”
ACT Party-list Rep. France Castro, meanwhile, believes the pending election protest of former Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. against Vice President Leni Robredo will not be a problem in her succession to the presidency in case something happens to the President. This is because she was proclaimed by the Commission on Elections as the elected vice president in the 2016 national elections.
“Bongbong’s [Marcos Jr.’s] election protest would not really matter. The Comelec’s proclamation of Leni was final,” said Castro who belongs to the Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives.
Although he believes nothing bad would happen to Duterte, Erice shared Castro’s view that Marcos’ poll protest would not impede Robredo’s assumption of the presidency in case the President could no longer do his duties.
“A protest is just a protest and in the hypothetical incident of the President’s incapacity or death, it is the constitutional mandate of Leni Robredo to take over the presidency,” Erice said.
But Magsasaka party-list Rep. Argel Cabatbat said he was not discounting the possibility that Marcos would question Robredo’s assumption of the presidency, since there was no decision yet from the Presidential Electoral Tribunal on his protest.
It has been four years since Marcos filed his election protest against Robredo before the PET, yet the case remains unresolved since Supreme Court Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, an appointee of former President Benigno Aquino III, inherited the case from Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa who retired last year.
Felipe Egargo Jr., former president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Quezon City Chapter, said the Senate president should be allowed to assume the presidency in case Duterte was incapacitated.
“Unless she is cleared of the illegitimacy issue, Robredo cannot be made to assume the presidency as it will create more questions than answers. Just like Caesar’s wife, she must be above suspicion,” Egargo said.
