Paolo Duterte to France Castro: ‘Public servants should not be onion-skinned’

MANILA, Philippines – Davao City 1st District Representative Paolo Duterte on Wednesday, October 25, came to the defense of his father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, as he called out ACT Teachers Representative France Castro for being “onion skinned” and reminded her that public servants are always subject to criticism. 

Duterte made the statement a day after Castro filed a criminal complaint against the former president for grave threat.

“We all have the right to file a complaint against anyone in court,” Paolo said on Wednesday.  “But public servants should not be onion-skinned and should not make use of this right as a tool to silence critics.”

Castro pointed out, however, that receiving criticism is far from getting death threats. In the case of the former president, he issued the threat against Castro over television and had since been reused for “trollish content” on other social media platforms. 

“I am protecting myself, my family, and my colleagues,” Castro said in response. “Also, death threats and red-tagging aired on television must be stopped because [these endanger] the lives of people…it fosters the state of impunity.”

What happened

Rodrigo had claimed without evidence that Castro was a member of the communist movement and told his daughter, Vice President and concurrent Education Secretary Sara Duterte, to target Castro first in killings sponsored by spy funds.

The former chief executive called the House of Representatives the “most rotten institution” and targeted House Speaker Martin Romualdez in his tirades, which came after the lower house stripped both of Sara’s offices of her proposed confidential funds. 

Rodrigo also demanded an audit of public spending after claiming that corruption is rampant among lawmakers when he himself was secretive about his assets, liabilities, and net worth during his term. 

Lawmakers at the lower chamber responded to Rodrigo’s claims – in a rare statement, leaders from across political parties expressed disappointment that “the former president chose to malign the very institution that for years supported many of his own legislative priorities.” 

“We call upon the former president and all parties involved to avoid making threats or insinuating harm against any member of the House or the institution itself,” their statement read. 

However, congressman Duterte on Wednesday still called out Castro for what he viewed as being dramatic. “If the former President has said something that threatened her, then maybe she should come out clean,” he said. 

To which, Castro responded: “The Dutertes used to tell people that if they do something bad, they should be sued by someone. Now that one of them is facing charges, they attack the victim.”

An ‘ironic’ move

Gabriela Women’s Representative Arlene Brosas came to Castro’s defense and pointed out that red-tagging can endanger someone’s life. 

“We would like to remind Davao City 1st District [representative Paolo] that his father’s statement should be taken seriously, considering his bloody legacy of extrajudicial killings and political persecution under his administration,” Brosas said. 

“It is also ironic that Rep. France Castro is being called out by Representative Duterte when ex-President Duterte hunted down ordinary people who criticized the government, and even had a high school teacher arrested for merely voicing out his frustrations in social media,” she added.

Human rights groups estimate that around 27,000 to 30,000 people were killed during the Duterte administration’s war on drugs. Most of the killings were done without due process. 

The International Criminal Court in July this year rejected the Philippine government’s request to block an investigation on drug war-related deaths under Rodrigo’s presidency. 

 – Rappler.com