Name a cyclone after Leni, Duterte jokes

President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday cracked another joke at the expense of Vice President Leni Robredo before her province mates in Camarines Sur.

At a briefing on the effects of Tropical Depression Usman in the Bicol Region, Duterte indicated that he didn't approve of a cyclone being named after a Maranao.

“Yung bagyo ‘wag niyo pangalanan na Usman. Si Randy Usman, Maranao ‘yan. Brother ko ‘yan in the Maranao side,” Duterte said at a command conference in Pili.

“It (typhoons) should be Bernadette, Leonora... Leni,” he added, drawing laughter from the audience.

The President has previously accused Robredo, the chairperson of the Liberal Party, of plotting his ouster. 

Robredo has denied such charges, saying that an ouster plot would harm the country. 

The Armed Forces of the Philippines also cleared the LP of involvement in any ouster plot against the President. 

But while he apparently sees the Vice President as a destructive typhoon, the President was somehow quick to take back his comments and later praised Robredo’s physical beauty.

“The reason why I gave you the priority sa projects [here in Camarines Sur] is because you have a very beautiful Vice President here. [Si] Leni, oo,” Duterte said. 

Robredo hails from Naga City, Camarines Sur and was a Camarines Sur representative before she was elected as Vice President in May 2016.

“Tell her that she’s really beautiful,” Duterte added.

In November 2016 which was the commemoration of the deaths of at least 6,000 people who died due to typhoon Yolanda in Tacloban, Leyte, the President said in his speech that he would check out Robredo’s legs during Cabinet meetings. 

Robredo used to be the chairperson of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council but resigned in December 2016 after the President barred her from attending Cabinet meetings. —NB, GMA News