President Duterte’s perceived personal attacks against Manila Mayor Isko Moreno might be the administration’s “signal” to its troll armies to start the “demolition operations” against its political enemies, former Ombudsman and 1Sambayan convenor Conchita Carpio-Morales said.
In a statement posted Saturday, August 14, on the opposition coalition’s Facebook page, the retired Supreme Court associate justice slammed the Duterte administration for its “veiled attacks” against the Manila mayor.
“The veiled attacks against Mayor Domagoso’s persona may well be the signal to the administration’s misinformation armies to accelerate demolition operations against all possible threats in the opposition to ensure another six years in power,” Carpio-Morales said.
She alleged that the administration is trying to “distract” the public “with unproductive remarks that tend to or are intentionally intended to create misfocused attention on political swordplay for paucity of real solution to the real problems that we must confront with urgency.”
During Monday’s public address, Duterte maligned a certain mayor in Manila for posing in his “bikini.” He asked the public if they would want to vote for someone who was trained to be a “call boy.”
READ: ‘Call boy’ as President? Duterte pokes fun at mayor’s photo in ‘bikini’
Though he did not mention his name, Moreno (Francisco Moreno Domagoso in real life) is the only current local chief executive who was in showbiz before. Some of the films and endorsements he starred in had steamy scenes that required him to be in his underwear.
The President also criticized an unnamed mayor for his “disorganized mind” as shown in the photos of rowdy crowds in vaccination sites.
This, he said, was reason enough for him to task the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to distribute the “ayuda” or cash aid to the beneficiaries in Manila. This was a task supposed to be handled by Moreno, who was awarded by the DILG in June for his timely and orderly distribution of cash aid during the surge in April.
READ: ‘Walang kaalam-alam’: Duterte calls out some mayors on disorderly cash aid distribution
There are reports that Moreno will seek the presidency next year as he become president of Aksyon Demokratiko, the political party of the late Senator Raul Roco. He has yet to make any formal announcement, but an alliance with Senator Manny Pacquiao is looking to be a possibility.