Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio yesterday blasted detained senator Leila de Lima in the latest episode of the outspoken first daughter’s verbal tussle with the opposition over the issue of honesty among senate candidates.
Duterte-Carpio, President Rodrigo Duterte’s eldest daughter, called de Lima “dumb” for supposedly failing to comprehend her argument that the Constitution did not list “honesty” among the requirements for candidates, and pointed out that the senator was in detention for drug-related charges.
De Lima, earlier this month, said disregard for honesty was “damning” and told Duterte-Carpio that she, along with Malacañang spokesman Salvador Panelo, “represent what is wrong and how things could be worse for our government.”
In response, Duterte-Carpio said: “If I am an example of what is wrong and what could be worse for our government, you just described yourself as well. You are the worst because you are intelligent and dumb all in one head.”
“You are the only person from the Black Hole who said it right. It should be the voters who will decide on what qualities they are looking for in candidates. But you are dumb as well, for attacking me without reading the entire transcription of my statement and comprehending what I said,” she said in an open letter.
Black Hole is Duterte-Carpio’s choice label for the eight-man senatorial slate of the opposition dubbed “Otso Diretso” (“Straight Eight”).
“You are a senator — honesty about your involvement in the illegal drugs business under scrutiny by the courts — how about you make a law adding honesty as a requirement for all Filipinos before they can run for public office,” Duterte-Carpio, who heads the pro-administration regional party Hugpong ng Pagbabago, said.
“Maybe then you can save the government from yourself, Inday Sara, Leni, Digong, Panelo, Alejano, Hilbay, and all the de Limas of the universe,” she added, referring to Vice President Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo, President Duterte, Panelo, Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano and former solicitor general Florin Hilbay.
Robredo leads the opposition, while Alejano and Hilbay are Otso Diretso candidates.
De Lima has been detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center in Camp Crame, Quezon City since February 2017, as she is on trial for her alleged involvement in the drug trade inside the national penitentiary when she was Justice secretary of the administration of President Benigno Aquino 3rd.De Lima has maintained that the charges were trumped up to silence her opposition to the president’s bloody war on drugs.
In her open letter, Duterte-Carpio insisted that honesty was not a requirement to be an election candidate, and that senatorial bets of the opposition could not set the standards.
“What I said was that, it will not be the opposition that will say what a candidate should be, and that honesty was really not a requirement for any candidate,” Duterte-Carpio said.
“Therefore, Black Hole candidates, who are themselves liars, should not attack a candidate in that manner. I used the same argument on the issue of a college degree or inclusion in the narcolist,” she added.
The narcolist refers to President Duterte’s list of elected officials allegedly involved in drugs.
Duterte-Carpio has accused Alejano of lying when he said that Hugpong candidate Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, former special assistant to the president, used government funds to pay for campaign shirts placed inside the kits distributed during a national convention of elected village officials in February.
Hilbay, the Aquino government’s solicitor general, has also been accused of misrepresenting his role in the Philippines’ arbitration case against China over the dispute over South China Sea (West Philippine Sea). Earlier this month, Duterte-Carpio dared Otso Diretso bets to debate with her, but the opposition candidates said they would only engage with senatorial candidates.
Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio
