By Junex Doronio
STRESSING THAT PUBLIC SERVANTS shouldn’t be onion-skinned, Davao City Rep. Paolo “Pulong” Duterte on Wednesday came to the defense of his father, former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte who ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro sued for an alleged grave threat.
The younger Duterte said that his father FPRRD has received “much harsher and humiliating criticisms in the past but never filed a case against anyone.”
“We all have the right to file a complaint against anyone in court. But public servants should not be onion-skinned and should not make use of this right as a tool to silence critics,” the younger Duterte pointed out.
He made the statement after Castro filed a grave threat complaint against the former President before the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office.
“As public servants, we all are under scrutiny by the Filipino people. If the former President has said something that threatened her, then maybe she should come out clean,” Rep. Duterte added.
He also ribbed Castro for being “left-leaning”.
“’Di yung nagtatago tayo sa likod ng so-called ‘right’ na ito. As a Congressman myself, madami din akong alam sa maka-kaliwang mga Party-list Representatives. Tigilan na lang natin ang ka-dramahan at pagpapa-media,” Pulong quipped.
Castro apparently caught the ire of FPRRD when she questioned the Office of the Vice President (OVP) on its P125 million confidential funds that were only spent in 11 days in 2022.
Last October 10, FPRRD defended his daughter and Pulong’s sister, Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte, over the use of confidential funds in both the OVP and the Department of Education (DepEd).
He justified that the CIF would be used for the creation of the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) program.
“Pero ang unang target sa intelligence fund mo, kayo! Ikaw France, kayong mga komunista ang gusto kong patayin. Sabihin mo na sa kanya,” the elder Duterte said, referring to the ACT Teachers party-list lawmaker.
(ai/mnm)
