{"id":131511,"date":"2017-11-15T23:33:11","date_gmt":"2017-11-16T04:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=131511"},"modified":"2017-11-15T23:33:11","modified_gmt":"2017-11-16T04:33:11","slug":"vp-sidelined-gmas-role-in-asean-an-oddity-de-lima","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/11\/15\/vp-sidelined-gmas-role-in-asean-an-oddity-de-lima\/","title":{"rendered":"VP \u2018sidelined,\u2019 GMA\u2019s role in ASEAN an oddity \u2013 De Lima"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"In<\/a>
FILE: Senator Leila De Lima\u00a0(Photo:<\/a> Leila De Lima\/ Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As the 31st<\/sup> Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and Related Summits draws to an end, Senator Leila De Lima cannot help but point out the \u2018oddities\u2019 that happened in this prestigious event.<\/p>\n

De Lima, in a statement on Wednesday, said that the three days of having different world leaders discuss relations and issues in Manila had several oddities which included leaving out Vice President Leni Robredo, giving a role to former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA), and inviting staunch supporter of President Rodrigo Duterte and blogger, Sass Sassot.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt appears that in lieu of the duly-elected Vice-President Leni Robredo, who was sidelined by the Administration from the ASEAN events, the government chose in her stead former President Arroyo,\u201d the detained Senator said.<\/p>\n

De Lima stated that only Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano and other officers could \u2018fathom\u2019 the reasons for this.<\/p>\n

The \u201ccurious role\u201d given to GMA that De Lima was referring to was that of \u201chosting ASEAN delegates in the absence of Duterte.\u201d This included Cambodian Primer Minister Hun Sen and Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.<\/p>\n

\u201c[From this role] to speaking before the ASEAN Business and Investment Summit (ABIS), where she extolled the coming of the Chinese era where China purportedly will lay down its own rules as the new world leader,\u201d De Lima added.<\/p>\n

While the Senator was firm with her stance, the Vice President chose to not make it a big deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cParang ayoko naman<\/em> (I do not think I would like) to make a big deal of it,\u201d Robredo said in a media interview when asked for her reaction for being \u2018sidelined.\u2019<\/p>\n

For her, she is only doing her job. \u201cDiscretion naman iyon ng Pangulo kung sino ang iimbitahan o hindi. Pero tingin ko hindi naman dapat palakihin pa <\/em>(It is the President\u2019s discretion on who to invite or not. But for me, people should not make a big deal out of this issue),\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

Robredo was, however, invited to the opening and closing ceremonies of the ASEAN Summit. She also delivered the closing keynote speech of the ABIS on November 14.<\/p>\n

Traditionally, past vice presidents are given bigger roles in such summits, though not having official functions, especially in the absence of the president.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and Related Summits draws to an end, Senator Leila De …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":100492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[980,2407,10348,33444,4134],"class_list":["post-131511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-gloria-macapagal-arroyo","tag-leila-de-lima","tag-leni-robredo","tag-rodrigo-duterte-sass-sassot","tag-vice-president","mauthors-bea-kirstein-t-manalaysay","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}