DAVAO CITY – Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio slammed Senator Antonio Trillanes over the latter’s statement that President Rodrigo Duterte is pushing her to run for president in 2022 so he could remain in power.
Mayor Sara posted a rebuttal against Trillanes' claim on Facebook and Instagram, telling the senator to leave her alone.
“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,” she said, citing former House Speaker Prospero Nograles, who was her opponent for the city's mayoralty race in the 2010 elections. In that election, Duterte-Carpio won by over 200,000.
“Speaker Boy Nograles lost that election and was a billion pesos poorer,” she said.
“Like Speaker (Pantaleon) Alvarez, my advice to you is not think of me, speak of my name, not even a whisper of Inday Sara from your ugly lips,” she said in the same post.
Duterte-Carpio lambasted Trillanes who claimed that President Duterte has three options to stay in power: declare martial law and establish a revolutionary government, initiate a Charter change, or push the candidacy of his daughter, first in 2019 for the senatorial race, and for president in 2022 when Duterte's term ends.
Trillanes made the speculations during the general assembly of Tindig Pilipinas, an opposition group formed last year to oppose some of President Duterte's policies, including the administration's push to amend the 1986 Constitution.
Trillanes was quoted in the report as saying: "Yung option C niya ay itutulak niya si Sara Duterte bilang pangulo sa 2022. Pero ang unang yugto niyan itutulak niya muna bilang senador sa 2019. Papayag ba tayo na Duterte forever (The President’s Option C is to push Sara Duterte for president in 2022. But first, he will push her for senator in 2019. Are we going to allow a Duterte forever)?"
Duterte-Carpio found these claims absurd.
“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. Let me repeat, do not bother me and my slot will be available for a yellow Senator for the 2019 elections,” Mayor Sara said in the same social media post.
If her father imagines Trillanes will be shot, Duterte-Carpio said she wanted him alive and in pain.
“I have been described as heartless by my mother, please do not anger me so that you may remain relevant for the future generation. And you should listen to my mother,” she added.
Trillanes has been lobbing allegations against President Duterte and some members of the First Family, ranging from unexplained wealth to other supposed irregularities.
Mayor Sara has been quoted joking in the past about eyeing a congressional seat, raising speculations that she plans to seek a higher post. However, the mayor made it clear that such statements were only aimed at teasing opponents. (Lilian C. Mellejor/PNA)
