MANILA — As Vice President Leni Robredo shaded Davao Mayor Sara Duterte’s senatorial slate in one of her campaigns for the opposition, the presidential daughter fired back with a piece of advice.
“Leni Robredo should avoid commenting about honesty and integrity,” Duterte said in a statement sent by her city information aide, Jefry Tupas, on Saturday.
Mayor Sara said Robredo’s honesty has been questioned since day one of her term as Vice President.
This statement was released after Robredo said honesty is a “huge factor” in determining one’s integrity.
Mayor Sara was referring to the election protest filed by defeated vice presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. before the Supreme Court, accusing Robredo of cheating during the 2016 national elections.
Robredo denied these accusations and asked the court to deny Marcos’ appeal for the technical examination of voting records in three provinces in Mindanao where alleged massive cheating took place during the 2016 elections.
“She is not called fake VP for no reason. She has tried to copy her late husband but has failed at every turn. She is facing an electoral protest for massive fraud during the 2016 elections. She has refused to answer allegations of her relationship with a married man,” Mayor Sara said.
“And if she insists in saying that you have to be honest to run for public office, then she must say goodbye to her dreams of becoming President,” she added.
The opposition team has been doing the rounds in the country to campaign against Duterte’s candidates under the Hugpong ng Pagbabago.
In her previous statements, she advised the opposition hopefuls not to attack other candidates when “they are themselves liars.”
“They use inaccurate, misleading statements and even direct lies when they attack other candidates or President (Rodrigo) Duterte, and they know they are stretching the truth and yet they deny that they are lying,” the presidential daughter said. “That is the reason why they should not attack other candidates about honesty because they are themselves liars. And this is the truth”.