Mayor Sara to Trillanes: ‘Leave me alone’

DAVAO CITY – Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio lashed out at opposition Senator Antonio Trillanes IV on Wednesday for claiming that her father, President Rodrigo R. Duterte, is grooming her to take over the presidency in 2022.

“Leave me alone, Senator Trillanes. The last time a person irked me, I made sure to make it difficult for him to bring me down and Speaker Boy Nograles lost that election and was a billion pesos poorer,” the mayor posted on Facebook.

Mayor Duterte, who was vice mayor of Davao from 2007 to 2010, won against former Speaker Nograles in the 2010 local elections with her father as vice mayor. A lawyer by profession, she returned to private practice when her father ran for mayor with her brother, Paolo, as vice mayor in 2013.

She made a comeback to this city’s top post when Duterte ran for president in 2016.

What irked her was a statement made by Trillanes last June 12, alleging that, in his desire to perpetuate himself in power, the President would have his daughter run for senator next year, and then for president when his term ends in 2022.

But the mayor told the senator: “Like Speaker (Bebot) Alvarez, my advice to you is not to think of me, speak of my name, not even a whisper of Inday Sara from your ugly lips. Leave me in peace in Davao City, or else you and your friends will spend more than a billion in the 2022 Presidential elections just to make me insignificant.”

She added that to never bother her again and her slot will be available for a “yellow” Senator for the 2019 elections.

Meanwhile, in Manila, Trillanes IV shrugged off the threats by the Davao City mayor’s tirades.

In a briefing with Senate reporters, Trillanes said would rather not respond to her remarks, but insisted that his allegations were supported by “facts.”

“Hindi ko na siya papatulan (I will not anymore entertain her),” Trillanes told reporters.

“Basta sa akin, sinabi ko yung kailangan kong sabihin. Kung magalit, eh ‘di magalit, kung magdrama, eh ‘di magdrama (For me, i just said what I have to say. They can get angry if they want to get angry, or put up an act out of it if they want),” he added.

He mantained the veracity of his claim, saying that it was tipped by “an informant” who was supposedly close to President Duterte.