MANILA, Philippines — “Scrutinizing” President Rodrigo Duterte is to “exact accountability,” and this is different from the attacks on those who criticize the President, opposition Senator Risa Hontiveros said Wednesday.
Hontiveros made the remark in response to a remark made by Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio that an “attack is an attack” and not validation and vindication of the senator’s work and position on key issues.
“When we scrutinize the President and hold him to higher standards, it is to exact accountability,” Hontiveros wrote on a Twitter post.
“When they attack & insult us for doing so, they insist on their impunity. That’s the difference,” she added.
When we scrutinize the Pres & hold him to higher standards, it is to exact accountability. When they attack & insult us for doing so, they insist on their impunity. That's the difference. #vindicatedhttps://t.co/qJRzt7hFAw
— risa hontiveros (@risahontiveros) February 13, 2019
The Presidential daughter earlier lectured Hontiveros about attacks and validation.
“Ai naku po, an attack is an attack. Don’t use attack, validation and vindication in one sentence,” Duterte-Carpio wrote on her Instagram Tuesday night.
“Otherwise, your attacks against the administration are validations to say that PRD (President Rodrigo Duterte) is correct and therefore vindicated,” she added.
Duterte-Carpio’s latest attack was in retaliation for Hontiveros’s remark saying that Duterte-Carpio “validates” the senator’s work and “vindicates” her positions on key issues when the presidential daughter attacks her.
“Every time she attacks me, she validates my work and vindicates my positions on important issues. Every insult from the mayor is a reading on the barometer I can use, second to none, to confirm how effective my office is in advancing democratic interests and goals,” Hontiveros said in a statement on Monday.
READ: Sara Duterte lectures Hontiveros on attacks and vindication
READ: Hontiveros hits back at Sara: I’m not the one with my head in my ass
Duterte-Carpio also told Hontiveros to stop criticizing and instead think of solutions after the senator called for the resignation of Public Attorney’s Office chief Persida Acosta amid the measles outbreaks. /muf
READ: Sara slams Hontiveros: Stop criticizing, think of solutions to measles outbreak