MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte challenged Sen. Manny Pacquiao on Monday to name corrupt government agencies or else he would tell the people not to vote for him in the 2022 national elections.
“Pacquiao keeps on talking about how we [the current administration] is three times more corrupt [the previous administration],” Duterte said, speaking partly in Filipino, during his taped weekly Palace briefing on the COVID-19 situation.
“So I am challenging him: Point those offices that are corrupt. And let me take care of it. Within one week, I will do something,” he went on. “You have said nothing all these years, but you were all praises for me. Then now you say [we’re] corrupt. Where’s the corruption? Which offices?”
Duterte admitted the Department of Public Works and Highways had gained “notoriety” for corruption, but he said he saw no longer saw other corrupt agencies.
“If you fail to do that, I will campaign against you because you are not doing your duty. Do it because, if not, I will just tell the people: Do not vote for Pacquiao because he is a liar,” Duterte said.
“I am not questioning your ability, intellectually or what,” he went on. “But if you can’t do that, I will be after you every day. I will expose you as a liar. I put you on notice: I will tell all [.about you] and I will go against you during the election period. If you don’t do that, you’ll just be another son of a bitch playing some politics.”
The president noted that every administration would always have a “share of the problem of corruption.”
“Do not ever think that if you will win as president, corruption will disappear here in the Pilipinas,” Duterte told Pacquiao, who is the acting president of their party, the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan.
This was not the first time Duterte chided Pacquiao. Previously, he told Pacquiao to “study first” after the latter criticized his stance on the West Philippine Sea issue.