MANILA, Philippines — Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio on Monday contradicted her father, President Rodrigo Duterte, who said she wanted to keep an SUV given to him as gift by Pastor Apollo Quiboloy.
In 2016, then Davao City mayor and presidential candidate Duterte said he had three properties at Woodridge Park, Ma-a, in Davao City given to him by Quiboloy. He also said the religious leader had also given him a Nissan Safari and Ford Expedition.
However, Duterte claimed he tried to return the Ford Expedition to the pastor but his daughter Sara, he said, insisted on keeping it.
READ: Duterte admits receiving gifts from Quiboloy
“(I said) ‘Pastor, iyo na ’yan’,” Duterte said, referring to the Ford Expedition. “So binalik ko.”
“I returned it. Then Sara got mad because she wanted it,” he also said. “(I told her) ‘Eh saan ka magkuha ng pang-gasolina? Para kang buang diyan’.”
In a statement, Sara said the “incident never happened,” adding that it could be perhaps one of her father’s jokes he usually peddles to the media.
“I never saw an Expedition vehicle allegedly given by Pastor Quiboloy. PRRD [Duterte] may have referred to another person with Inday as a name or he incorrectly remembered events,” Sara noted.
“Perhaps, the story told by PRRD, the time when he was still Mayor of Davao in May 2016, was just another one of his jokes, which he usually peddles to the media. The problem was it went unchecked and was taken by the media hook, line, and sinker. It was reported as truth,” she added. (Editor: Katherine G. Adraneda)