DAVAO City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio defended Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) Chief Persida Acosta against Senator Risa Hontiveros’s remark urging Acosta to step down due to measles outbreak.
Along with the measles outbreak in Luzon, Acosta has been blamed for eroding the public’s overall trust on vaccination following the controversial Dengvaxia dengue vaccine in 2017.
With this, Hontiveros then called on Acosta to resign because she has allegedly brought “shame and embarrassment” to the principal law office of the government tasked to provide free legal assistance to the poor.
In an Instagram post on Sunday, February 10, Duterte-Carpio said it is Hontiveros who should be resigning because the lawmaker has “never once said something right.”
“Ikaw dapat mag-resign dahil wala ka nang sinabi na tama. Lahat sablay. PAO Chief Acosta is doing her job in assisting indigent litigants who want to sue,” Duterte-Carpio said.
“Paano ma-solusyonan ang outbreak sa pagpapa-resign kay Attorney Acosta? Mag-isip po tayo ng solution, hindi opposition para lang may masabi. Kapag gusto natin magsalita, pag-isipan muna para hindi nakakahiya,” she added.
Duterte-Carpio also questioned the senator’s rejected angle on human rights as the Dengvaxia vaccine killed innocent individuals.
“Dengvaxia eroded the parents’ confidence in vaccines and you can easily verify this if you talk to the people in barangays instead of putting your head inside your behind all the time,” she added.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health announced that as of Monday, February 11, the number of people infected with measles rose to 4,300 as parts of the country grapple with an outbreak of the highly-contagious disease.
In Davao City, Duterte-Carpio said there was no measles outbreak and the only challenge is to not let the disease enter the city.