DAVAO City First District Representative and House Deputy Speaker Paolo Duterte said his fellow lawmaker is responsible for the "mass" resignation of some of his staff.

Duterte issued a statement on Thursday, August 27, following an online news article regarding the resignation of his chief of staff, Atty. Sherwin Castañeda, and six others.

While the deputy speaker did not name the website, politics.com.ph, a blog on Philippine politics, recently posted an article with the header title, "Di matagalan boss? Paolo Duterte's chief of staff, 6 others resign."

The article from the blogsite was already taken down.

According to another report from davaobreakingnews-2.com, "Duterte was surprised that a website came out with the story and did not even bother to ask his side of the story." Davao Breaking News is a current affairs website.

Minutes later, the website posted another article, where House committee on Appropriations chair Eric Yap has claimed responsibility for the reported mass resignation of the entire congressional staff of Duterte.

Yap, representative of ACT-CIS Party-list group, said he asked Castañeda to tender his resignation amid the reported lapses and mismanagement in running the office of the Davao City congressman. Duterte's other staff members followed suit since they were all hand-picked by Castañeda.

According to Yap, he recommended Castañeda to Duterte so he believed it is only proper to ask Castañeda to resign due to the reported complaints inside the office of President Rodrigo Duterte's eldest son.

Duterte confirmed Yap's statement, saying that since the latter has already issued a statement, the reason behind is better answered by Castañeda who he parted ways with amicably.

"For the details on why they resigned I think it would be best if Atty. Castañeda should answer that question because for me, tapos na ang lahat and we parted ways na maayos," Duterte said.

He said the resignation letters of Castañeda and his six other staff were submitted to the office of Yap on August 10, and he intended it to be discreet so as to protect Castañeda and his staff.

Duterte said he now plans to bring in some of his staff from his Davao District-Office to the House of Representatives to help run the office.

"I'm almost done filling up the vacant positions with the help of congressman Yap's staff. Hoping for a smooth transition and a more effective office for the constituents of the 1st district of Davao City," he said.