Marcos-Duterte ‘honeymoon period’ already ended - Koko Pimentel

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III on Wednesday said that the “honeymoon period” of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte has already ended.

“Ako personal opinion ko, ‘yung relationship ng dalawang camps sa tingin ko if ever may honeymoon man sa relationship nila, mukhang wala na talaga ngayon,” Pimentel said in a virtual interview when asked about the declining trust rating of the country’s two top officials.

(My personal opinion is, if there really was a honeymoon period in their relationship, it appears that it has already ended.)

“Parang sa ngayon the Marcos camp is being represented by the Speaker of the House. Parang si Speaker [Martin] Romualdez ang face of the so-called ‘Marcos camp.’ ‘Yung relationship ni Speaker at tsaka ni Vice President parang obviously hindi okay,” he added.

(Right now the Marcos camp is being represented by the Speaker of the House and Speaker Martin Romualdez is being the face of the so-called “Marcos camp.” The relationship between the Speaker and the vice president is obviously not okay.)

In OCTA Research Group’s last October 2022, Marcos and Duterte both received 86% trust ratings.

It declined to 73% for Marcos and 75% for Duterte in October 2023.

Marcos and Duterte emerged as the country’s top leaders after a landslide win in the 2022 national and local elections. Their campaign centered on “unity.”

The relationship between Marcos and Duterte was tested in 2023, notably by the Chief Executive’s stance on whether the current government should cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigation into the alleged human rights abuses committed under the previous Duterte administration’s bloody drug war and the Romualdez-led House stripping the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd) of which the vice president also heads as secretary, of their confidential funds in the 2024 national budget.

GMA News Online has reached out to Malacañang and the OVP for their respective reactions to Pimentel’s comments. –RF, GMA Integrated News