MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte was not consulted by Solicitor General Jose Calida when he sought for the inhibition of Supreme Court Associate Justice Marvic Leonen from the vice presidential poll protest case, Malacañang said on Tuesday.
In a Palace press briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said Calida did not need to seek the President’s approval.
“Hindi naman po ganoon ang ating Presidente (The President is not like that). He does not micromanage. Hinahayaan po niya ang kaniyang mga Gabinete na bigyan ng atensiyon at umakto sa mga bagay-bagay na nasa ilalim ng kanilang mga ahensiya (He leaves it to his Cabinet members to give attention and to act on matters under their respective agencies),” he said.
However, he refused to comment when asked if Calida's support for defeated vice presidential candidate Bongbong Marcos in the 2016 national elections affected his motivation for filing his motion.
“Let’s just say that the matter of inhibition is now left to not just Justice Leonen but to the court itself. I will not comment on that,” he said.
He said the motion had to be filed because “it is the interest of our people” to find out who really won in the 2016 vice presidential election.
“Sa batas po na bumuo ng (In the law that creates the) Office of the Solicitor General, they are actually counsels for the people and I suppose ang motion had to be filed because it is the interest of our people na malaman natin kung sino talaga ang nagwagi sa eleksiyon para sa Bise Presidente (to find out who really won in the election for vice president),” he said.
Roque said the nation also has an interest to find out if there is merit in the election protest.
Calida filed a separate motion to the Supreme Court, as Presidential Electoral Tribunal, for Leonen’s inhibition on Monday, the same day Marcos’ lawyers filed a similar motion
Leonen is currently the justice-in-charge of the election protest that Marcos has filed against Vice President Leni Robredo.
He had almost the same arguments cited by Marcos, saying Leonen was biased against the Marcos family and had acted with delay on the protest.
Marcos denied that he was in communication with Calida in his poll protest against Robredo.
However, he suggested that as solicitor general, Calida might have “adopted” some of the elements in their motion.
Marcos lost to Robredo by 263,473 votes in the May 2016 election. (PNA)
