House Speaker Martin Romualdez has finally responded to Vice President Sara Duterte's claim that he had no involvement at all in her vice presidential bid for the May 2022 elections.
'I was her campaign manager': Martin responds to claim that he had no hand in Sara's VP bid
Jan 26, 2024 05:32 AM
At a glance
House Speaker Martin Romualdez (left), Vice President Sara Duterte (Speaker’s office, Facebook)
House Speaker Martin Romualdez has finally responded to Vice President Sara Duterte's claim that he had no involvement at all in her vice presidential bid for the May 2022 elections.
Romualdez, in a press briefing Friday noon, Jan. 26, brought this up himself when then topic shifted to the Vice President.
"Maski paano may pinagsamahan din dati, maski wala daw akong kinalaman sa pagka-Vice President niya," he told House reporters.
(We had a working relationship before, even if she said I had no involvement in her being the Vice President.)
"I was her campaign manager. We worked very hard together and I was very, very happy when she was successfully elected with a very, very, very high mandate for VP," shared Romualdez.
"I congratulate her, I wish her nothing but all the best, I respect her... and she has my full support as Vice President and secretary of DepEd (Department of Education)," added the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) president.
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It can be recalled that Duterte joined Lakas-CMD on Nov. 11, 2021--mere days before formally declaring her aspirations for the vice president's post. She was almost instantly offered the chairmanship of the long-established and respected political party.
The two high-ranking officials allegedly had a falling out with each other over the alleged coup attempt against Romualdez in the House of Representatives in May 2023.
It was during this time that Duterte resigned from the Lakas-CMD.
Then, on June 7, 2023, Duterte said, “To say that he (Romualdez) ‘tremendously helped in pushing for’ my Vice Presidential bid is acutely inaccurate — an insult to thousands of groups and individuals who incessantly implored me to reconsider an earlier decision not to join national politics."
In the same briefing Friday, Romualdez said that he has never assailed the Vice President and that he even misses her.