A CONFIDANTE of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said he will not withdraw from the presidential race in 2016, even though his reason for running—to stop Senator Grace Poe—might be rendered moot by her disqualification.
“He’s running. It doesn’t matter anymore,” said Salvador Panelo, Duterte’s lawyer, in an interview with The Standard Wednesday.
“He told me that it’s about time that someone will stand for the Constitution. It seems that all candidates don’t stand for the rule of law. There’s political accommodation on the part of the other candidates,” Panelo added.
Also on Tuesday, the Philippine Jesuits encouraged Duterte to talk to them about the sexual abuses the mayor claimed to have experienced as a student of the Ateneo de Davao.
The congregation’s spokesperson Rev. Emmanuel Alfonso assured the mayor that the information Duterte will given them will be handled properly and in utmost confidentiality.
“We extend our invitation to Mayor Duterte to tell his story and also to other Ateneo students who may have been abused in the past,” Alfonso said.
Alfonso said it is a fact that there were some abuses that happened in the past, some did not come out in public after victims and their families kept quiet for fear of public humiliation.Ӭ
However, he also noted that the cases of abuse done by priests are not that many and are rarely recorded because the victims chose not to have them recorded.
Alfonso added that the allegations of abuse against minors will be investigated and Pope Francis himself, also a Jesuit priest, has ordered the pursuit of such cases.
Duterte, in an earlier interview during his Sunday show Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa broadcast live in Davao, challenged the survey frontrunner to show him her Filipino mother and he would withdraw from the presidential race.
When he finally decided to run last month, Duterte said he would not stand for “an American president,” referring to Poe, whom he believes is not a natural-born Filipino citizen.
“Grace Poe is just the trigger, but it’s the Constitution that the senator-judges blatantly disregarded that [caused Duterte to run],” Panelo said.
“The senator judges did not follow the letter and spirit of the Constitution because of political accommodation,” he said.
Duterte continued to draw flak for a rambling, obscenity-laced speech that he delivered Monday at his proclamation by the PDP-Laban, where he cursed the Pope, admitted to killing criminals and said he would not give up his womanizing just because he was running for president.
Gabriela party-list Reps. Luz Ilagan and Emmi de Jesus slammed Duterte for flaunting his womanizing ways and said his actions belittled women. They also said his statements on women were “distasteful and unacceptable.”
More priests joined Catholic bishops in denouncing Duterte.
“I was also appalled by what he said, although now he is saying he was cursing the traffic situation and not the Pope. But he did curse the Pope and said that the Pope should go home, and if he comes back for another visit, he would not allow it,” said Fr. Amado Picardal, executive secretary on basic ecclesial communities at the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.
“Anyway, it was a blessing in disguise that he said that—it revealed his true character—a man with no sense of decency and respect, not worthy of being a president of the Philippines,” Picardal said.
“It’s not the only reason why I won’t vote for him. He is a mass murderer whose death squad is responsible for the death of 1,000 people—mostly small time criminals and minors who are poor—in
Davao. He who promises to kill another 100,000—abolish Congress and establish a revolutionary government if elected. This is his solution to criminality and corruption. He thinks he is above the law,” Picardal told The Standard online.
Apologists said Duterte was a devout Catholic and would never show irreverence to the Pope. They also said he was really cursing at the inability of the government to address the traffic problem in Metro Manila, and apologized if his words were misunderstood.
The presidential spokesman who was quick to denounce Duterte for cursing the Pope said Wednesday that it was good that the mayor apologized.
“As a Catholic, it’s good that he asked for forgiveness. It’s good that he admitted that he made a mistake,” said presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda. With Sandy Araneta