MANILA, Philippines — House Deputy Speaker Paolo Duterte has apologized after his son, Omar, reportedly bypassed a health check at the entrance of a membership shopping store in Davao City.
“It has come to my attention that my son, Omar Duterte, went to SNR Davao and he did not line up to conduct the stringent screening requirements of the establishment,” Duterte said in a statement.
“It is with humility that I apologize for the behavior of Omar and his impertinence shall be dealt with accordingly,” he added.
Duterte added that the alleged “misconduct” of the security team that accompanied his son is now being probed by the Presidential Security Group.
“This incident is unfortunate given the health emergency that we are facing these days — while most of us are preoccupied with efforts to protect every Dabawenyo, especially our frontliners and government responders and volunteers,” Duterte said.
Meanwhile, Omar also apologized for not following the supermart’s protocols.
He explained that “the only reason for me not following protocols” was that their group was already wearing gloves and followed proper hand hygiene when they arrived at the store.
“The staff of SnR even insisted we enter due to them seeing we already had put on gloves and followed proper hand sanitation. Although I personally would have laughed at the idea of washing hands in front of people while not a moment ago they just saw us putting on gloves and washing them,” Omar said in a Facebook post.
“It seems that some people took the protocols to the letter that even latex gloves aren’t enough to prevent the virus from infecting our hands within those gloves,” he added.
However, Omar said he apologizes “to those people who felt I should have followed protocol whilst being fully gloved.”
“If I had known that it shouldn’t be seen as comedic to wash your hands moments after putting on gloves, I would have gladly just washed my hands and followed the protocol,” Omar said.
“I know this is not a laughing matter and for this, I cannot begin to express the great feeling of remorse of not following the protocols thinking that the gloves were enough. For this, I’m sorry,” he added.