EVEN with an appointment ban lapsing soon, President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday said former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. was not keen at joining his Cabinet as Interior secretary.
“He’s not interested,” Duterte said, referring to Marcos Jr., in a chance interview at Malacañang.
Duterte’s pronouncements dispelled rumors Marcos, who lost to Vice President Leni Robredo, would be named as the new head of the Department of the Interior and Local Government once the one-year ban on defeated election candidates expires in May.
Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno has previously expressed his readiness to be replaced if that would be the decision of Duterte.
The Supreme Court, sitting as Presidential Electoral Tribunal, recently junked Vice President Leni Robredo’s motion to dismiss the election protest filed by the son of former President Ferdinand Marcos.
Duterte, who admitted his closeness to the Marcoses following their support to him in the last elections, allowed the burial of the former president at the Libingan ng mga Bayani as part of his campaign promise.