Sara: Speaker messed with the wrong girl
DAVAO CITY – Presidential daughter and Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio is up in arms against Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez over the latter’s calling her part of the opposition for setting up a political party.
“You messed with the wrong girl,” Sara said in her “Sara Zimmerman Duterte” Facebook account.
“If you’re an asshole in Congress, don’t
bring that to Davao, leave it in Manila. Somebody should tell the President what you are doing,” she said, addressing the speaker who is also secretary-general of President Duterte’s PDP-Laban.
“How dare you call me part of the opposition. Kapal ng mukha mo,” she said.
Alvarez denied Sara’s allegations, saying he never said anything derogatory about her.
“Ano sabi mo in a crowd, ‘President iba siya, Speaker ako, I can always impeach him!’ And you call me opposition? Somebody should really tell the President about the truth. Antay ka bukas, I have another story,” the mayor said in another post.
Alvarez said some people might be relaying false information to the mayor.
“Do you think I am stupid to be saying that? Besides, I have not spoken to a crowd lately,” the Speaker said.
President Duterte shrugged off the spat between his daughter and Alvarez, saying that being both lawyers they could work it out between themselves.
“It’s just intrigue. Media again,” the President said at a press briefing yesterday at the wake of Filipina worker Joanna Demafelis in Sara, Iloilo.
Sara is set to officially launch today Hugpong ng Pagbabago, an alliance of local officials in Southern Mindanao, which she chairs.
Davao Oriental Gov. Nelson Dayanghirang said the Hugpong ng Pagbabago (Alliance for Change) aims to strengthen security and development cooperation among officials in the region.
“This is to ensure that the region gets its fair share of development and that the security aspect would be addressed,” Dayanghirang, the party’s vice president, said. Davao Occidental Gov. Claude Bautista is the party’s president. Davao del Norte Gov. Anthony del Rosario and Compostela Valley Gov. Tyron Uy are the other core members of the party.
Dayanghirang emphasized that Hugpong ng Pagbabago has nothing to do with PDP-Laban.
“PDP-Laban is national in scope, Hugpong is a local group,” he said.
He added Hugpong ng Pagbabago would also include provincial board members as well as city and municipal mayors in the region.
“This is something that we look forward to in the region,” Dayanghirang said.
In a statement, Sara stressed she has no plans of joining PDP-Laban.
“I also specifically informed the President that I will not join PDP-Laban,” she said. She maintained her forming Hugpong ng Pagbabago had the blessings of her father.
“I would like everyone to know, including the Speaker of the House, that the unity I forged with the four governors of Region 11 has the blessing of President Rodrigo Duterte,” she said.
The mayor also resented Alvarez’s raising the issue of political dynasty in reacting to her creation of Hugpong ng Pagbabago.
“If the Speaker is attacking our effort to do something significant and timely for Region 11, and reducing it as a product of political dynasties, I suggest he pass the Anti-Political Dynasty Law,” Sara said.
Meanwhile, Duterte said the PDPLaban could in no way help politicians or local executives allegedly involved in the illegal drug trade.