Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. on Sunday opposed the statement made by Vice President Leni Robredo that the refusal of former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to accept defeat in the 2016 vice presidential race destroys the country’s democratic institutions.
“Of course not,” Locsin said in a tweet’
The country’s top diplomat who is also a lawyer averred that Robredo should instead fight back if she felt she had been cheated in her election battle with Marcos.
“If you felt you had been cheated you should fight back to prove it because it is your democratic duty to protect the electoral process even from suspicion,” he added.
In her radio program on Sunday, Feb. 21, Robredo said the refusal of Marcos to accept defeat “casts doubt on the integrity of the country’s institutions.”
“Ito ang nakakalungkot kasi ‘di lang ito between us. Yung laban di lang Marcos vs Robredo. Pero pag sinira mo ang democratic institutions, yung sinisira mo yung bansa natin (This is said because this is not just between us. It’s not just Marcos vs Robredo. But if you destroy democratic institutions, you destroy our country),” the vice president said.
Last week, the camp of Marcos said their challenge to the poll victory of Robredo is not over yet even as the Supreme Court, sitting as Presidential Electoral Tribunal, unanimously dismissed the former senator’s electoral protest.
A spokesman for the Marcos camp assured that whatever the decision, they will face it and continue to fight it out until 2022.