Vice President Leni Robredo said she is ready at all times to take over as the country’s top leader if anything happens to President Duterte.
Robredo, in an interview on GMA‘s “Quarantined with Howie Severino,” said she has prepared herself as constitutional successor of President Duterte when the need arises.
“I’ve been ready since I was elected Vice President. And the last four years, I made sure that I’ve been studying. We don’t want any eventuality to happen, but that’s my obligation if something happens,” she said.
The vice president said she has been meeting with experts to give her weekly briefings about different subject matters even before the coronavirus pandemic struck.
“It’s a huge part of my responsibility to equip myself with the capacity and the needed skills and the information,” Robredo said.
“I think it’s my obligation to study hard because it’s my work. I can’t say, ‘I’m not ready because I only prepared for being a VP,’” she added.
Duterte’s state of health has been a recurring issue in his presidency given his old age.
There have been questions surrounding his health after rumors circulated on social media that he was supposedly airlifted to Singapore for a medical emergency last month.
While Duterte and those who are close to him denied this, the President publicly admitted that his Barrett’s esophagus was “nearing stage one cancer.”
The 1987 Constitution says the Vice President shall serve the remaining days of a president’s term “in case of death, permanent disability, removal from office, or resignation.”