MANILA, Philippines — Former Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo on Saturday branded as “dirty politics” the removal of Vice President Sara Duterte as a member of the National Security Council (NSC).
Panelo issued the statement after the vice president and former presidents, including her father former president Duterte, were excluded from the NSC in an executive order (EO) reorganizing the presidential advisory body principally responsible for coordinating and integrating government plans and policies related to national security.
“The removal of VP Sara as member of the National Security Council is an ill advised presidential move,” Panelo said in a statement.
“It smacks of dirty politics. Another brazen measure to diminish the political star power of VP Sara,” he added.
Panelo, who served as chief presidential legal counsel of former president Duterte, also claimed that removing former presidents from the NSC was just a guise to make it seem that the vice president was not the target of the body’s reorganization.
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“The removal of FPGMA (former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) and FPERAP (former president Joseph Estrada) in the NSC is to deodorize the elimination of VP Sara as [a] member — to make it appear that she is not being targeted,” he said.
In a separate statement, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said the vice president has been removed as council member because “at the moment, the VP is not considered relevant to the responsibilities of membership in the NSC.”
“EO 81 is issued to reorganize and streamline the membership of the NSC,” Bersamin said.
“Nonetheless, when the need arises, the EO reserves to the President the power to add members or advisers,” he added.
In EO 81, Marcos said there was a need to “further guarantee that the NSC remains a resilient national security institution, capable of adapting to evolving challenges and opportunities both domestically and internationally.”
The new EO supersedes EO 33 issued by then president Fidel Ramos in 1992 and EO 34 in 2001 by Macapagal-Arroyo, in which the president heads the NSC composed of 26 other officials from the executive and legislative branches, including the vice president.
Aside from Duterte’s 79-year-old father, the other living presidents who could participate in NSC meetings but are now excluded are Arroyo, 77, and Estrada, 87.