Palace to Hontiveros: Stop excessive politicking

Sen. Risa Hontiveros should stop “excessive politicking,” Malacañang said Friday, after the opposition lawmaker called President Rodrigo Duterte as the “destabilizer-in-chief.”

“It is ironic that Senator Risa Hontiveros, who spends so much of her time undermining the efforts of this administration, would refer to the President as ‘destabilizer-in-chief,'” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement.

Hontiveros hit the President on the eve of the 46th anniversary of the declaration of martial law by former President Ferdinand Marcos, comparing Duterte to the former dictator.

READ: Duterte is the ‘real destabilizer’ — Hontiveros

The senator’s criticism against the President came after the Chief Executive accused the opposition of hatching a destabilization plot to overthrow him.

Hontiveros said that under the Marcos and Duterte regimes, “thousand became victims of extrajudicial killings, both resorted to Martial Law, committed gross acts of human rights abuses, mismanaged the economy, and persecuted the opposition and political dissidents.”

Roque, however, snapped back at Hontiveros, saying “the President has made significant strides in his fight against drugs, criminality and corruption and there is high public appreciation and acceptance of his actions.”

The Palace official added that “many Filipinos agree that when there is peace and order, the economy thrives,” and that “adult joblessness as well as crimes are decreasing.”

“During this challenging time when the nation must stand as one because of the tragedies that befell our farmers from Northern Luzon, the miners of Itogon, Benguet to the residents of Naga, Cebu, what our people expect is a moratorium from excessive politicking from our elected leaders,” he said.

Massive protest actions are expected to take place on Friday to mark the martial law declaration of the late dictator Marcos and show the growing discontent of various groups on what they call were repressive policies of the Duterte administration.  /muf

RELATED STORY: Amid alleged ouster plot, Dutere says ‘they can’t bring us down’