TAGUM CITY—Mayor Sara Duterte on Thursday clarified that she never expressed her opinion about the proposed divorce bill in the House of Representatives, saying her opinion “does not matter since I am not a member of Congress.”
In a press conference for the campaign of Tapang at Malasakit here for a peaceful, orderly, clean, and honest barangay election on May 14, Mayor Duterte said her father, President Rodrigo Duterte, was only teasing House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez when he said that she is not in favor of the divorce bill.
“PRD was only joking when he said that I was not in favor of the divorce bill that Congressman Alvarez is pushing. He said at that time that Alvarez should talk to me about the bill,” she said.
The presidential daughter explained that the Chief Executive is “very aware” of her differences with the House Speaker, the reason why he was teasing the latter to talk to her about the divorce bill.
“He knows about our dispute and we do not see each other eye to eye that is why he said those words. He was just teasing Speaker Alvarez,” she said.
“It is not my job to give an opinion about the divorce bill since I am a mayor of Davao. My opinion does not matter. I am not a member of the Congress,” Mayor Duterte said.
During the recent change of command ceremony of the Philippine National Police, President Duterte said Sara is not in favor of the divorce bill, and Alvarez should talk to her instead.
Since Duterte threw his hat into the 2016 presidential race, he already expressed his disapproval of divorce, saying that the children “will be greatly affected” when it happens.
Around 2,500 barangay candidates gathered at the RDR gymnasium in Tagum City to pledge their support to advocate the campaign of Tapang at Malasakit founded and chaired by Mayor Duterte.
The mayor reminded the candidates to have a peaceful, orderly, clean, and honest barangay election in the entire region.
To maintain a peaceful, orderly, clean, and honest election the candidates should be reminded not to kill or cheat, and to clean up after the election period, she added.
“I would like to appeal to you all, please don’t kill your opponents. You will never win in that way,” she said. “Killing your opponent only means that you’ll have another opponent. It will be an unending process.”
“After the entire election period please do clean your barangays since it is one of the mandate of a barangay official to clean their community,” she said.
Mayor Duterte also stressed there should be no political party that will rule the campaign, since the barangay election is a non-partisan exercise.
