NOT HELPING. Rep. Leni Robredo, Liberal Party vice presidentiable wants the word war stopped between Presidentiable aspirants Mayor Rody Duterte and Mar Roxas “because it is not helping at all”. She suggests to elevate their tiff to a level of discussing issues. (Ace R. Morandante/davaotoday.com)
DAVAO CITY – Vice presidential candidate of the Liberal Party (LP) and Camarines Sur Rep. Maria Leonor “Leni” Robredo said there are more important issues to talk about instead of the political bickering between presidential aspirants Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and LP bet Mar Roxas.
During an interview with the members of the press here on Tuesday, Robredo said she hopes the bickering would stop as it is not helping them.
Roxas and Duterte’s trading of words ran for a couple of weeks. Before deciding to run for the presidency, Duterte said Roxas was behind the rumors that he has cancer, which Roxas denied.
Roxas, last week also said Davao City’s peace and order situation as a “myth” which he said is based on statistics. Duterte answered him that his being a Wharton graduate is a “myth” as he only finished a bachelors’ degree and not a masteral program. A Wharton official eve clarified that Roxas can be called a “Wharton graduate” as he finished an “undergraduate” degree.
Recently, Roxas welcomed the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) decision to accept the COC of Duterte for president and challenged him to a debate about their plans in the country.
Duterte said he would only debate with Roxas if he ranks second in presidential surveys.
“Sana mahinto na kasi marami kaming kailangang asikasuhin e, na feeling ko hindi din naman nakakatulong sa amin lahat. Hindi naman nakakatulong sa lahat ang ganitong level ng usapan (I hope this stops because we have a lot of work to do. I feel that this is not helping us all. This level of talk is not helping us),” she said.
She also said supporters of both candidates are polarized as the bickering tends to be “very divisive”.
“Sana ano na lang, kung ano yong nangyari mag move on na. Ano na lang, gawin ulit yung discourse naka issue-based (Let’s move on. Let’s make the discourse issue-based),” said Robredo.
Robredo also said she does not see any problem if ever Duterte wins and she would be the vice-president.
“Kasali naman yun sa mandate na kahit sinong mananalo, kailangan makipagtulungan. Lalo na yung pangalawang pangulo kailangan makipagtulungan siya sa kanyang pangulo dahil yun yong number one role niya (It is included in the mandate that whoever wins will cooperate, especially the vice president because that’s his number one role),” said Robredo.
Robredo attended a dialogue with multi-sectoral representatives here Tuesday afternoon, organized by the Mindanao Coalition of Development NGO (non-government organizations).
Raisza Mae Anayatin, executive director of Mincode said the event was held for the sectors of farmers, women, indigenous peoples, urban poor and disaster survivors to relay their proposed agenda for Robredo to take up should she win during the elections.
“Si Cong. Leni naman, ang responses niya were very positive. She said most of the issues raised were already taken up by the (government),” said Anayatin citing the institutionalization of bottom-up budgeting and the poverty-alleviation program 4Ps (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program). (With a report from Ace R. Morandante/davaotoday.com)
