Duterte asks Manila rally to reject Marcos bets, backs Imee, PDP slate

Metro Manila, Philippines - Vice President Sara Duterte told a local campaign to reject administration senatorial candidates and rallied for those she supports.

On Thursday, April 24, Duterte attended a campaign of mayoral candidate Isko Moreno and his slate in Tondo, Manila, and endorsed the candidacies of Imee Marcos and Jimmy Bondoc of PDP Laban, the party of her father, former President Rodrigo Duterte.

In a lengthy speech, the vice president slammed the cheap rice campaign promise of her former running mate, then presidential bet Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

The administration revived this in a recent move to sell P20 per kilogram of the staple in the Visayas.

“Ang pangako bente pesos ang kilo ng bigas na hanggang ngayon ay hindi pa naibibigay. Kaya anong pwede niyo gawin?...Huwag niyo iboto ang mga kandidato niya. Dahil ang mga kandidato niya ay nagsasabi sa kanya na okay lang na magsinungaling ka. Okay lang na hindi mo tuparin ang pangako mo sa mga tao,” said Duterte.

[Translation: The promise was to lower rice prices to P20 per kilo, which wasn’t fulfilled until now. So what can you do now?...Don’t vote for his candidates. Don’t vote for them because they are telling Marcos that it’s okay to lie. That it’s okay not to fulfill your promise to the people.]

Las Piñas Rep. Camille Villar, one of Duterte’s senatorial picks, is part of the administration’s Alyansa Para sa Bagong Pilipinas.

NewsWatch Plus has sought the alliance’s comment on Duterte’s remark.

The vice president recently cast doubt on plans to sell cheap rice in the Visayas, which may be a strategy to boost the administration’s poor ratings.

President different from his sister

Also in the campaign, Duterte rallied support for her senatorial choices, including the presidential sister.

“Tulad na lang na magkaibang tao kami ni Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte…si Bongbong Marcos ay hindi si Imee Marcos,” she said in support of the re-electionist lawmaker.

[Translation: Just like how different former President Rodrigo Duterte and I are, Bongbong Marcos is not Imee Marcos.]

The vice president previously endorsed Marcos, Villar and the 10-member PDP slate, a month after the former president was detained at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands to face charges of crimes against humanity for murder in relation to his bloody drug war.

Duterte said Marcos will continue the ongoing Senate investigation into the former president’s arrest should she win her re-election bid.

“At pangako niya ay tutulong din siya sa…pagkuha, balik at ibalik dito sa ating bayan si Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte,” said the vice president.

[Translation: And she also promised to help bring back former President Rodrigo Duterte]

The presidential sister quit her brother’s slate over disagreements on the ex-president’s arrest.

The vice president, meanwhile, also asked the crowd to support PDP bets upon his father’s request for the sake of “continuity.”

Duterte previously said her father’s arrest and detention prompted her to finally endorse senatorial candidates, reversing an earlier statement to be apolitical in the midterm elections.