UPLB student: No intention to disrespect Duterte
MANILA, Philippines – A University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) student on Monday cleared himself from criticisms and maintained that he meant no disrespect after a video report on the question and answer portion of the university’s academic forum went viral and earned negative reactions from netizens.
Student Stephen Villena, who last Friday took part in the academic forum about governance, transparency, and social transformation with presidential candidate Davao City Mayor Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte as guest, said Duterte’s supporters were angry at him for supposedly being disrespectful over his way of questioning the mayor.
In his personal Facebook account, Villena said he broke his silence to provide context to the whole issue and to clarify that he had no intentions to disrespect the mayor.
“It is my hope that by doing so people will realize that I was simply posing an academic question which required an academic answer and I in no way intended to disrespect the good mayor,” Villena said.
During the forum, Villena asked a question regarding the defense budget. A portion of this question and answer exchange with Duterte was recorded.
Duterte was answering the question when he was cut by Villena and was asked to answer the question directly so he can go home.
“So sana pakisagot po 'yung tanong ng diretso kasi ‘yung tanong ko lang naman po hindi po ba madadagdagan 'yung budget for defense sa pag implement n'yo ng ginagawa n'yo sa Davao City sa buong Pilipinas, so sana po pakisagot lang po ng diretso kasi nagtatanong lang kami ng diretso para makauwi na po kayo,” Villena said during the forum.
Duterte attempted to reply again but Villena cut the mayor once more that prompted Duterte to response with a joke. This exchange appeared to be disrespectful to Duterte’s supporters and other netizens.
Villena explained that during the forum it was made clear that Duterte was in a hurry to leave as it was getting late. He said that pressed him to ask the mayor to answer the question directly.
“Before I took the floor to ask my question it was made clear to us that Mayor Duterte was in a hurry to leave the forum as it was getting late. I therefore rushed my question hoping for an immediate answer. And since I did not get a direct answer to my question I requested him to please answer my question directly "para maka-uwi na siya," Villena narrated.
“To be clear, it was Mayor Duterte who was in a hurry to leave. The spliced video that was uploaded to the internet did not show the full exchange between me and Mayor Duterte. The cut video somehow made it appear na pinapauwi ko na si Mayor. Hindi po, sya po ang nagmadali na umuwi. In fact I only wanted to accomodate his wish to finish the Q&A portion of the forum asap,” he added.
The student said the shortened video made him appear arrogant to ask the mayor to go home and disrespectful in the eyes of those who were not present during the forum. He said he is just raising his questions as he finds it important to students.
“The end result was that the people who only saw the shortened video but did not participate in the forum somehow got the impression that I was bastos, arrogante, walang modo,” Villena said.
“Much as I wanted to give the good mayor all the time he wanted to answer my question, I was also considering his very limited time with us. If I appeared to rush him it was in no way motivated by an arrogant desire to cut him. I only wanted him, despite his limited time, to give a clearcut answer to an issue which I deem very important,” he added.
Like Villena, a student named Minami Iwayama in charge of the microphone during the question and answer portion part of the forum appealed to the public and asked them to understand the context of the forum saying there was time constraint.
Meanwhile, another student named Ronald Gem Celestial also got bullied and was mistaken to be Villena.
Duterte's camp asked supporters to be responsible citizens, take the moral high ground and exercise civility, intelligence, decency and compassion when engaging in any discussion.
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