Sara Duterte says Imee Marcos, not Romualdez, pushed run for VP

by GABRIEL PABICO LALU Inquirer.net

MANILA — Vice President Sara Duterte belied claims that Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez was a big factor in her decision to run for her current office in the 2022 national elections, saying that it was Senator Imee Marcos — the sister of the president — who urged her. Duterte made these claims on Wednesday, June 7, supposedly in reply to Cavite 4th District Rep. Elpidio Barzaga who supposedly said that Romualdez played a huge part.

According to the vice president, it is an insult to thousands of people and groups who urged her to seek the country’s second high- est office and partner with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

“Speaker Martin Romualdez had absolutely nothing to do with my decision to run for vice president. To say that he ‘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,” Duterte said.

“And it was Senator Imee Marcos who eventually persuaded me to run as vice president — and it was a decision sealed only after President Bongbong Marcos agreed to the conditions I set before running for