{"id":153592,"date":"2018-02-20T02:29:40","date_gmt":"2018-02-20T07:29:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=153592"},"modified":"2018-02-20T02:29:40","modified_gmt":"2018-02-20T07:29:40","slug":"duterte-to-congress-respect-govt-officials-in-hearings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/02\/20\/duterte-to-congress-respect-govt-officials-in-hearings\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte to Congress: Respect gov\u2019t officials in hearings"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Duterte<\/a>
Duterte said it was wrong for lawmakers to treat any of his officials as if they were already guilty.(PNA photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA — President Rodrigo R. Duterte has appealed to Congress to respect government officials summoned to its hearings, noting that he had instructed his officials to leave if they feel degraded.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m telling Congress now with due, with the utmost respect: please treat them as if they are really a general, a Cabinet member and officer. Do not demean them before the public,\u201d Duterte said during the founding anniversary of the Chinese Filipino Business Club at the Manila Hotel Monday night.<\/p>\n

The President made the remark after his special assistant Christopher \u201cBong\u201d Go testified in a Senate inquiry into the PHP18-billion Frigate Acquisition Project (FAP) of the Philippine Navy, also Monday.<\/p>\n

Go has denied allegations that he meddled in the warship deal by favoring one supplier over another.<\/p>\n

Duterte said it was wrong for lawmakers to treat any of his officials as if they were already guilty.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have already assumed\u00a0na totoo ‘yan, hinuhuli mo lang ang tao<\/em>\u00a0(that it is true. You\u2019re just trying to catch him lying). You berate him,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Duterte said he would not allow any of his officials to be demeaned and even ordered them to walk out of the hearing if they were treated rudely.<\/p>\n

Moreover, he said he was also willing to fetch his officials himself if they were barred from leaving the hearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will not allow that to happen. I do not want to fight Congress,\u201d Duterte, a former congressman himself, said.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2019Wag lang ninyong babuyin kasi<\/em>\u00a0(Just don\u2019t disrespect them because) my orders would be: if you are degraded, if you are inflicted with the wounds of your dignity as a person, stand up and go out. If you are arrested, I will object.\u00a0\u2018Pag hindi kayo binitawan<\/em>\u00a0(If they won\u2019t let you go), I will go to Congress, even alone, to get you,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Open, transparent<\/strong><\/p>\n

Duterte has urged Special Assistant to the President Christopher Lawrence \u201cBong\u201d Go to demand for an \u201copen and transparent\u201d Senate hearing<\/p>\n

\u201cSabi ko,\u2018yan ang \u2018wag mong gawin<\/em>, (I said, don\u2019t do that) Bong. Demand an open and transparent public hearing. And demand how this came about, the original,\u2019\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

He also urged him to tell the truth.<\/p>\n

\u201cSabi ko nga kay<\/em>\u00a0(I told Bong) Bong, \u2018just tell the truth.\u00a0Wala ka namang problema<\/em>\u00a0(You don\u2019t have a problem),\u201d Duterte said.\u00a0(PNA)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA — President Rodrigo R. Duterte has appealed to Congress to respect government officials summoned to its hearings, noting that …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":152706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[46974,44034,16251],"class_list":["post-153592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-christopher-lawrence-bong-go","tag-frigate-acquisition-project","tag-rodrigo-r-duterte","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}