By Junex Doronio
MANILA — For publicly countering a major decision of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to resume peace talks with communist rebels in his bid to end the 55-year-old Maoist insurgency, Vice President Sara Duterte must resign as secretary of the Department of Education (DepEd).
This was the dare of former Senator Leila de Lima Tuesday (05 December 2023) after VP and Education Secretary Duterte assailed the move of the President to resume the peace talks and even called it “an agreement with the devil.”
“She (VP Duterte) should resign as DepEd Sec if she keeps on publicly opposing BBM’s Cabinet policy decisions that have nothing to do with DepEd,” De Lima posted in X, formerly Twitter.
The former senator added: “She cannot eat cake and keep it too.”
De Lima noted that peace talks is “not within the core competence” of the Vice President as concurrent DepEd secretary.
“The problem with VP Sara’s statement against the peace talks is this — She is still member of Cabinet,” De Lima said.
(ai/mnm)
