Leni Robredo to take LP leadership post soon, PNoy says

Vice President-elect Leni Robredo will take either one of the highest posts of the Liberal Party (LP) as President Benigno Aquino III steps down from his post in two weeks.

“She is aware that she will take one of the most senior positions [of the party]...We have to ask her preferences...because we don’t force from anybody to do anything,” Aquino told members of the Malacañang Press Corps over lunch in Manila.

Robredo, Aquino said, could either be elected party chairman or president. Aquino is presently the chairman of the group while outgoing Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya is LP’s president.

“The highest position is the chairman but ‘yung day to day activities are handled by the party president so that will be decided by the party as a whole,” Aquino said.

“Traditionally after elections, the LP has a change of leadership and...I would be classified as an elder of the party,” Aquino, whose six-year administration will expire on June 30, said.

LP’s presidential candidate, former Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II, lost the elections to President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, making Robredo the highest sitting public official of their political party come noon of June 30.

Aquino said he also expects other active members of the LP who will be occupying government positions after June 30 to continue pushing for their party’s advocacies.

“We still believe that the conversion of Philippine politics from one of personality to platform-based will undoubtedly help the country and we’d like to continue towards that,” he said.

“We’d like to continue what has been done these past six years, parang the advocacies that we had before we entered as an administration,” Aquino added. —NB, GMA News