PRESIDENT Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said he does not see his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte as a political enemy despite his continuous attacks against him.
In an interview with reporters on the sidelines of the Philippines-United States-Japan trilateral meeting in Washington, DC, Marcos was asked to comment on Duterte’s statements, saying they will become political enemies following the suspension of Davao del Norte Governor Edwin Jubahib.
“I don’t consider him a political enemy. It takes two to tango. I don’t consider him a political enemy,” he said,
The Office of the President has ordered the 60-day suspension of Jubahib pending the resolution of an administrative complaint filed against him by board member Orly Amit over allegations of grave abuse of authority and oppression.
Jubahib refused to step down as he maintained that the complaint was not enough grounds for him to be suspended.
“They only used power tripping because they knew that higher-ranking officials were backing them. Honestly, they couldn’t wait for the election, they wanted immediately to sit in power because they wanted to immediately implement their personal interests once they were seated,” he said in a statement.
Duterte, the former mayor of Davao City, expressed strong disapproval of Malacañang’s order, as he maintained that Jubahib was elected by the people and that it should be respected.
Marcos said he is willing to discuss with Duterte the legal basis of the suspension order.
“I’ll send him all of the court records and all of the discussions about that. Matagal na yan. Some of these cases were filed before I took office. And so it’s taking close to two years because it went through the process. So I’m confident, let anybody investigate,” Marcos said.
“So, actually I only learned about the cases about a year ago. I did not know that such a case existed. I learned about it a year ago as part of my briefer, my daily briefer. So I’m very sure we did all of, we went through, all of the checks and balances. We went through all the procedures, the proper procedures, before we came to the decision, before the DILG came to the decision of imposing a suspension,” he added.
Earlier, Duterte also criticized Marcos, even calling him a drug addict and “bangag,” a term locally used to describe someone who is high on illegal drugs.
He even called his successor a “crybaby” supposedly for his leaning towards the United States.
Marcos said he does not have the time to respond to every tirade against him by Duterte.
“You know, to be a crybaby, you have to cry. Did you see me cry? I don’t want to pay attention to that. I really don’t. That’s means absolutely nothing to me,” he said.
Marcos said Duterte, as a highly experienced lawyer, should know that “ad hominem attacks” have no place in high-level discussions such as the trilateral summit between the Philippines, the US and Japan.
“Sasabihin na, pangit ka. O sige, ‘di pangit ako, so what? Walang lugar ‘yang mga ano – ‘yung mga personal na ad hominem attacks kung tawagin sa batas,” he said.
(They'll say, "You're ugly." Alright then, "I'm not ugly, so what?" Those personal ad hominem attacks have no place under the law.) (TPM/SunStar Philippines)