SUMMARY
MANILA, Philippines – President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has defended Vice President Sara Duterte from criticism about her silence over China’s aggression against Philippine government vessels and fisherfolk in the West Philippine Sea.
Marcos said in an interview with Philippine media in Washington, where he had attended a trilateral summit with US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, that the China issue is not within the scope of Duterte’s job as vice president and education secretary.
“That’s not the role of the Vice President or the secretary of education to talk about China,” Marcos said on Friday, April 12 (US time).
Duterte’s silence over the issue amid the Marcos administration’s strong condemnation of a series of Chinese actions in the West Phil…