Sandro Marcos reveals Duterte camp’s demands for backing dad in 2022

MANILA, Philippines — House Majority Floor Leader and Ilocos Norte Rep. Ferdinand Alexander “Sandro” Marcos said Saturday that a Duterte administration official agreed to back his father, then-presidential candidate Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., in the 2022 elections in exchange for the authority to choose the next Executive Secretary, House speaker and other key government officials.

“We were supposed to meet the President at the time, but instead, hinarap kami sa tatlong tao. Hindi ko na lang babanggitin kung sino. But we were put in front of three people,” Rep. Marcos shared in DZMM’s Kwatro Alas program.

(We were supposed to meet the President at the time, but instead, we were put in front of three people. I won’t even mention who. But we were put in front of three people.)

The presidential son said that he and his father went to Malacañang to seek an endorsement from then- President Rodrigo Duterte for the 2022 presidential elections.

He even detailed that they waited for at least two hours.

READ: Marcos to Duterte: ‘What did you compromise?’

Instead of just Duterte, however, three other officials joined in.

Without disclosing the identity of the political figures, he said that one individual, an incumbent official, told Duterte to back Marcos Jr. under one condition: they will determine who will be the executive secretary (ES), Speaker of the House of Representatives, and more.

“There’s one person, who is a sitting official now, and sinabi nya kay Pangulo. Sige suportahan ka namin on the condition that, kami ang mamimili ES, kami ang mamimili ng speaker, kami ang mamimili ng Senate President, kami mamimili ng Secretary, basta, marami silang hiningi,” Rep. Marcos said.

(There’s one person, who is a sitting official now, and he said OK, we will support you on the condition that, we will select the ES, we will select the speaker, we will select the Senate President, we will select the Secretary, anyways, they were asking for a lot.)

The revelation followed a question about the fallout of the UniTeam, Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte’s tandem, which the lawmaker said was due to a power struggle.

“A part of me kinda saw it coming, hindi dahil sa isang tao kundi dahil sa dami ng mga iba’t ibang partido sa paligid, sa dami nilang, it was a power struggle,” he said.

(A part of me kind of saw it coming—not because of any single person, but because of the many different factions involved, given how many there were. It was a power struggle.)

Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.