Metro Manila, Philippines – Former Vice President Leni Robredo met with Vice President Sara Duterte in Naga City.
In a statement shared by her former spokesperson and lawyer Barry Gutierrez to NewsWatch Plus, Robredo said Duterte was in Naga for a local religious event.
“While she was in Naga City for the Peñafrancia Festival, VP Sara Duterte took the opportunity to visit me at my home. The conversation we had was personal and not political,” Robredo said.
The meeting lasted for about an hour, said Gutierrez. The Office of the Vice President has yet to issue a statement about the meeting.
Robredo was the vice president during the term of then-President Rodrigo Duterte, the sitting vice president’s father. They were politically estranged.
Robredo ran in 2022 and lost to Duterte’s running mate and now-President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Marcos and Duterte also had a falling out.
No longer friends
Duterte has severed ties with the Marcoses. “Never again,” Duterte said when asked by the media on Wednesday, Sept. 18, without elaborating.
The vice president added that she and Marcos are no longer on speaking terms.
“Wala, hindi naman talaga kami nagkausap niyan. Hindi kami magkaibigan unang-una, nagkakilala lang kami dahil naging magka-running mate kami,” Duterte told reporters in an ambush interview after attending the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability hearing.
[Translation: “We’re not friends, and we were never close. We only met because we were running mates. Before that, we never spoke, and during the campaign, we only communicated for work.”]
Duterte said her last conversation with Marcos was when she resigned as education secretary in June.
The vice president also shared that she plans to rest during the 2025 midterm elections and may reveal her 2028 plans by the last quarter of 2026.
In a separate interview earlier this month, Marcos said the line has been silent between him and the vice president.
“The last time I spoke to her was when she handed me her resignation, and we haven’t spoken since,” the president said.
