DAVAO CITY – Davao City Rep. Paolo Z. Duterte defended his father, former President Rodrigo R. Duterte, from the complaint filed against him by a party-list lawmaker against him.
REP. Paolo Duterte of Davao City.
ACT Teachers party-list Rep. France Castro on Tuesday, October 24, filed before the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office a criminal complaint against former President Duterte following his alleged threats and statements in a television program.
PRRD is facing complaints of grave threat under Article 282 of the Revised Penal Code and Section 6 of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 after he talked about the confidential fund of his daughter, Vice President Sara Duterte.
"We all have the right to file a complaint against anyone in court. But public servants should not be onion-skinned and should not make use of this right as a tool to silence critics," Rep. Duterte said.
Rep. Duterte said the former President has received much harsher and humiliating criticisms but never filed a case against anyone. He added that as individuals in government roles, everyone is constantly being observed by Filipino citizens.
"If the former President has said something that threatened her (Rep. Castro), then maybe she should come out clean. Di ‘yung nagtatago tayo sa likod ng so-called right na ito (She should not be hiding under this right)," Rep. Duterte said.
He added, "As a congressman, madami din akong alam sa maka-kaliwang mga party-list representatives. Tigilan na lang natin ang kadramahan at pagpapa-media (As a congressman, I know a lot of things about Leftist party-list representatives. Let us stop the drama and media grandstanding)."
Castro, along with other legislators, disapproved the allocation of P650 million in confidential funds to the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education headed by the Vice President.
The former President said over the “Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa” program over SMNI on October 11 that the Vice President intends to use the confidential funds for a soft revival of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) program.
Mr. Duterte said that he counseled his daughter to be open with Congress, especially with Castro, explaining that she requires confidential funds to combat the communist movement which Castro is allegedly part of.
The program was posted on SMNI's social media accounts, with more than 7,000 views, 600 reactions, and hundreds of comments.