In the wake of the controversy involving a University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) student, the camp of presidentiable and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has issued a statement asking supporters to calm down.
There have been reports that then UPLB student has gotten death threats from people claiming to be Duterte’s supporters. This was because the student was accused of being “rude” to Duterte.
What happened at UPLB?
Villena got bashed by Duterte’s supporters over the weekend after a video clip of him asking Duterte a question during a Mar 11 forum at UPLB went viral. In the video, Villena said this to Duterte: “Sana pakisagot po ‘yung tanong ng diretso kasi ‘yung tanong ko lang naman po, ‘Hindi po ba madadagdagan ‘yung budget for defense sa pag-implement n’yo ng ginagawa n’yo sa Davao City sa buong Pilipinas?’ So, sana po pakisagot lang po ng diretso kasi nagtatanong lang kami ng diretso para makauwi na po kayo (I hope you can answer my question directly because I am just asking, ‘Won’t the defense budget be increased if you implement on the entire country what you’re doing in Davao City?’ I hope you answer my question directly because I am just asking you directly as well, so you can go home).”
Villena later explained that the video didn’t tell the entire story. In a Philstar.com report, he explained, “To be clear, it was Mayor Duterte who was in a hurry to leave. The spliced video that was uploaded to the Internet did not show the full exchange between me and Mayor Duterte. The cut video somehow made it appear na pinapauwi ko na si Mayor (that I was telling the mayor to go home). Hindi po, s’ya po ang nagmadali na umuwi (I wasn’t, because it was he who was in a hurry to leave and go home). In fact, I only wanted to accommodate his wish to finish the Q&A portion of the forum ASAP. The end result was that the people who only saw the shortened video but did not participate in the forum somehow got the impression that I was bastos, arrogante, walang modo (disrectful, arrogant, and without any manners).”
Duterte’s camp intervenes
Peter Laviña, Duterte’s spokesperson, released the statement on Sun night, Mar 13. He said: “In light of the issue involving some students of the University of the Philippines Los Baños, we enjoin all of you to be responsible citizens and exercise civility, intelligence, decency, and compassion when engaged in any discourse. We deeply appreciate the hearty and oftentimes intense expression of support and love for Duterte as all these push our campaign for real change to a whole new level.”
Laviña went on to say, “Let us be reminded that we are here together because of our collective desperation for the country to break away from discontent, poverty, corruption, criminality, and proliferation of drugs. These are the reasons why we have aspired for real change. The battle is not against our fellow Filipinos.”
