Palace claims Paolo Duterte, Manse Carpio 'willing' to face Senate

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Presidential son, Davao City Mayor Paolo “Pulong” Duterte, and his brother-in-law, lawyer Manases Carpio have expressed willingness to attend the Senate inquiry into the P6.4-billion illegal shipment of shabu from China, Malacañang said on Monday.

“I’m sure the gentlemen (Duterte and Caprio) – as they have said – are willing to face the Senate,” Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella told Palace reporters.

Abella’s statement came after Senate blue ribbon committee chair Richard Gordon confirmed in a television interview that his panel, which is currently investigating the illegal entry of shabu in the country, would summon Duterte and Carpio at the next hearing scheduled on Thursday.

Gordon said that even though the allegations hurled against the two are mere “hearsay,” they should not be exempted from any Senate investigation just because they are the son and son-in-law of President Rodrigo Duterte.

“We are saying that [the allegations against Duterte and Carpio] are hearsay. But they are the son and son-in-law of the President. They are relatives of the President. So they have to be summoned. And that is why I agreed that they should be summoned in the first place,” Gordon said in an interview with GMA’s Unang Balita.

Prior to the senator’s decision, Gordon had rejected the motion of Senator Antonio Trillanes to invite the younger Duterte and Carpio to clear their names.

The names of the President’s son and son-inlaw had been dragged into the Senate inquiry of the P6.4-billion shabu shipment that hounds Bureau of Customs (BOC). They were believed to be behind the so-called “Davao Group” that allegedly facilitated the smuggled shipments at BOC.

On Saturday, Abella said there was no reason to invite Duterte and Carpio since self-confessed broker Mark Taguba had already cleared them.

The President, however, advised his son to attend the ongoing Senate investigation but invoke “right to silence” during the interpellation of Tr i l l anes.

“My advice to Pulong, go there and when you attend and he (Trillanes) questions, just said, ‘I will not answer you, I’m invoking my right of silence because during the elections, when my father is not yet the President, you’re grilling us already,’” Duterte said in an interview late Saturday in Davao City.

"So you might as well invoke the right to silence. When a person invokes a constitutional right, you cannot infer anything from them. Perfectly all right, and you cannot force a person [to answer]," he added.

Abella said it would still be up to the the Presidential son and son-in-law whether they would choose to answer queries or remain silent, if they attend the investigation.

“That would be their prerogative. But they definitely said that they are willing to face,” the presidential spokesman said.