Duterte glad to serve as Poe’s anti-crime czar

MANILA, Philippines – Presidential candidate Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte would be glad to work as anti-crime czar of Sen. Grace Poe if he loses the presidency to her.

“I’d be glad to. It would be an honor to serve under Poe,” Duterte told reporters in an interview during his sortie in Laguna on Friday night.

But Duterte’s vice presidential candidate Sen. Alan Cayetano doubts Poe’s motives.

In the same interview, Cayetano said Poe is inconsistent.

“She said before that Mayor Duterte cannot end crimes in three to six months. Now she wants him side-by-side, so her camp is actually the one in reverse,” he said in Filipino.

Duterte’s spokesman Peter Laviña said Poe has just exposed her brand of politics and has validated that she is a “confused leader” because she wants to appoint Duterte as anti-crime czar after she criticized his style of solving crime.  

“What is more alarming is her tendency to flip-flop and her willingness to accommodate and compromise,” Laviña said in a statement.

Poe said during a campaign sortie in Baseco Compound in Manila on Thursday that she would appoint Duterte as anti-crime czar if she is elected president.

Poe made the statement after Duterte said in his sortie in Bulacan on Wednesday that he would appoint her as secretary either of the Department of Social Welfare and Development or the Department of Tourism.

But Poe also said during the second leg of the presidential debate in Cebu City that she would appoint retired Marine colonel Ariel Querubin as her anti-crime czar if she gets elected.

Duterte also slammed presidential contender Vice President Jejomar Binay for allegedly being behind the disqualification case filed against him at the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Duterte told reporters during the 65th birthday of his ex-wife Elizabeth Zimmerman in Cebu City that “learned it from a credible source.”