Vice President Leni Robredo believed that President Duterte is being fed lies about her after no other than Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque tried to peddle "fake news" that she volunteered to appear in an infomercial with the Chief Executive to address vaccine hesitancy.
In an interview with "Viewpoint" over the Now You Know Facebook page, Robredo said it was not surprising if Duterte was being fed with lies about her all along.
"Malamang (Probably)," she said.
"This isn't the first time that it happened involving me," she added.
The Vice President recalled the different "lies" including her supposed attendance at a rally in EDSA that resulted in her being ordered to stop attending Cabinet meetings in December 2016. She added that Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said she hitched on a C130 ride to Catanduanes to bring relief goods there during the onslaught of typhoons Rolly and Ulysses last year.
"Now, Secretary Harry Roque, on national TV, nagsusumbong kay Presidente na nagvo-volunteer ako (tells that the President that I am volunteering)? It's not true. So talagang marami yung bumubulong na hindi totoo (So there are really a lot of people whispering wrong information about me)," she said.
"Yung kay (For) Secretary Lorenzana, he admitted that he was fed with the wrong information. Pero itong si Secretary Harry Roque pinanindigan ang kanyang kasinungalingan (But Secretary Roque insisted on his lies). It only worsens things," she added.
On Wednesday evening, Roque erroneously claimed that Vice President Robredo was volunteering to join the government's vaccination campaign, a remark that did not receive any response from President Duterte based on the delayed telecast of the latter's weekly public address.
The following morning, despite being called out by Robredo's spokesman Barry Gutierrez, Roque insisted that the Vice President was volunteering to be in an infomercial with Duterte when it was Senator Joel Villanueva who suggested the idea.
During the online interview, Robredo reiterated that all her camp did was express her openness to the proposal.
"My spokesperson was the one who reacted to it and he was saying that we are open to joining the president in doing an infomercial if only to address vaccine hesitancy in the Philippines. That was all," she said.
Despite being accused of pushing for the joint infomercial, Vice President Robredo said she was still open to working with the administration.
"Over the past five years, I have proven that I am willing to set aside politics if it will be for the greater good," she said.
"Every time I'm given the chance to contribute what I can, palagi naman akong oo (I always say yes)," she added.
It would not be the first time Duterte and Robredo will be working together if the infomercial pushes through. The President named Robredo as head of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) in 2016 but the latter resigned from her post after she was barred from attending Cabinet meetings.
In November 2019, the Vice President was appointed as co-chair of the Inter-Agency Committee on Anti-Illegal Drugs (ICAD), but her stint only lasted for 18 days after the President fired her due to mistrust and alleged incompetence to handle the job.