FILE PHOTO: Then-Executive Secretary Victor Rodriguez facing members of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, Tuesday, August 23, 2022, to shed light on the events that transpired in connection with the controversial Sugar Order (SO) No. 4 issued by the Sugar Regulatory Administration authorizing the importation of 300,000 metric tons of sugar. – Rodriguez, who has aligned himself with the Dutertes after he left the Marcos Cabinet – serving for just over two months – in September 2022, is calling the disbarment case against ex-President Rodrigo Duterte a mere “act of desperation and publicity gimmick.” (Voltaire F. Domingo/Senate PRIB)

ILIGAN CITY — The former executive secretary of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is calling the disbarment case against ex-President Rodrigo Duterte a mere “act of desperation and publicity gimmick.”

It was a reference to the notorious “behest loans” granted to individuals or corporations favored by powerful government officials.

Atty. Victor Rodriguez, who is running for senator in the 2025 midterm elections, has aligned himself with the Dutertes after he left the Marcos Cabinet – serving for just over two months – in September 2022.

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Rodriguez has been one of the main speakers during the rallies of the Hakbang ng Maisug, a movement backed by the Dutertes and designed as a counterforce against the Bagong Pilipinas movement of Marcos.

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The former Palace official questioned the timing of the disbarment complaint, which was premised on the recent pronouncements of Duterte before congressional panels investigating his administration’s bloody drug war.

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“After accomplishing nothing in the mindless and pointless investigations supposedly in aid of legislation but which has not produced even one piece of legislation, his critics now bring the demolition job to a new venue,” Rodriguez said in a statement posted on social media on Friday, Jan. 17.

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“Why it took them nearly three years after President Duterte (left office) to file the disbarment casts doubt on the seriousness of the complainants to file the case and their motives for doing so,” he added.

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READ: Duterte aide says disbarment case vs ex-president baseless

Admitted to the Bar on June 20, 1973, Duterte is being assailed by human rights advocates, religious leaders and families of victims of his war on drugs, for complicity by inspiring the carrying out of extrajudicial killings.

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But Rodriguez said these are all “a publicity stunt given the circus that accompanied the filing.”

“Disbarment cases are supposed to be confidential in nature but here we see a shameless emphasis on publicity,” Rodriguez pointed out.

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He accused the Marcos administration of being in “collusion” with “the yellow diehards and what remains of the extreme left” in a bid to fend off “the people’s anger over issues of massive corruption, official abuses, incompetencehit-bonus, rising inflation, worsening economy, and breakdown of peace and order, among others.” Ryan D. Rosauro INQ

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