By Genalyn Kabiling
President Duterte took a swipe at opposition Senator Francis Pangilinan not only for his alleged flawed juvenile justice law but also about his supposed marital trouble.
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte (ALBERT ALCAIN / PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
The President claimed that Pangilinan has been asked to move out from the house by his wife Sharon Cuneta.
"Alam mo ba ‘yun si Pangilinan? Kayo, kayo lahat, kayong lahat. Bumilib kayo sa gunggong na ‘yan? ," he said during the Bonifacio Day commemorative rites in Caloocan City last Saturday.
"Pinapaalis na nga ng asawa niya sa bahay niya, ayaw kay wala ibang matirahan. Totoo. Tanungin mo. At kung sabihin mo nagsisinungaling ako, I will resign. Ang sinasabi ko totoo ‘yan ," he added.
Cuneta previously admitted that her marriage to Pangilinan almost ended two yeas ago. The megastar, in an Instagram post in 2018, said they fought many times in the past two decades but never over a third party.
The President made the allegation about Pangilnan's marital woes in his latest tirade for authoring a law that supposedly let youth offenders to get away with their offenses.
"Hindi mo mahuli 15 years old . They go in and out of prison because of the Pangilinan law...They steal, they kill, they rape and kill. Whatever the crime is. They are scot-free," he said.
He also criticized Pangilinan for seeking his appointment as presidential adviser on agriculture during the past administration.
"The only problem with it, itong si Kiko. Pupunta-punta kasi sa p***. Punta-punta ng mga Harvard, ganun, Pa-English-English. Pagdating dito galing Harvard, ang ginawa nagpa-appoint Agriculture. Para lang nandiyan sa pwesto ," he said.
In the past, Duterte railed against Pangilinan for his supposed role in creating a "generation of criminals" from his controversial juvenile justice law.
Pangilinan was the author of Republic Act 9344 of the Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of 2006 that exempts minors below 15 years old from criminal liability. A bill seeking to amend the Pangilinan law and lower the age of criminal responsibility to 12 years old, endorsed by the President, remained pending in Congress.