Duterte’s son: Declaring Mar ‘persona non-grata’ in Davao valid sentiment

MANILA, Philippines –Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s son in his social media account on Sunday expressed agreement with some Davaoeños’  growing call to declare Liberal Party’s presidential bet Manuel Mar Roxas  as “persona non grata” in Davao City following his statement that the city’s peace and order is a myth.

In his Facebook page, Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte said it is a valid sentiment of the people to declare Roxas as persona non grata since the Davaoeños feel like Roxas belittled the achievements of the city for his personal political gains. However, he said he does not find a convincing reason to declare Roxas as such as  it will only draw attention to him.

“The call to declare Mar Roxas as persona non grata I think is a valid sentiment of the people as we think that Mar mocked the achievements of the city for his personal political gains. But I see no compelling reason to declare him as such for to do so would put us on the same level as he is. His campaign is gasping and for us to afford him our attention would breathe life into a dying campaign,” Paolo said.

In August 2014, Davao City also declared Roxas’s current supporter celebrity, Ramon Bautista, a persona non grata after the latter made a joke referring to Davao’s women at the Kadayawan Festival.

Paolo said Bautista’s joke attacked women and so it must suffer consequences while Roxas’s political propaganda shall bear consequences in the 2016 polls.

“While Ramon Bautista and Mar Roxas are of the same color (yellow), the difference between their utterances is that the former singled out our women at binastos sila so he shall personally bear the consequences of his act, while Roxas' is political mudslinging and he shall bear his consequences come 2016 presidential elections,” Paolo added.

Meanwhile, Paolo’s father claimed that Roxas initiated the smear campaign by spreading cancer rumors against him that angered his children.

“Ikaw nag-umpisa e. Ikaw nagsabi na may cancer ako. I was really holding na ayaw ko then you got my children into anger kaya hindi na sila nagsabi na ‘wag [na akong tumakbo],” Rodrigo said.

“Galit sa publicist mo, ikaw ‘yun e,” he added.

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