Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi and Senator Manny Pacquiao. FILE PHOTOS / SENATE PRIB
MANILA, Philippines — “Lumayas ka muna bago mo sunugin ang bahay mo.”
(Leave first before you burn your house down.)
This was the message of PDP-Laban party vice-chairman Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi to Senator Manny Pacquiao following the remarks made by President Rodrigo Duterte against the boxing champ-turned politician.
Pacquiao serves as PDP-Laban’s acting president while Duterte is the party’s chairman.
“It’s really unfortunate that the acting president of the party is accusing the chairman, who is the president of the country, of those things that Sen. Pacquiao said openly,” Cusi said in an interview on ABS-CBN News Channel.
“Hindi po naman siguro tama yun na sarili mong bahay susunugin mo. If you don’t like your house…don’t say something about it, lumayas ka muna bago mo sunugin ang bahay mo,” he added.
(I don’t think it’s right that you burn your own home. If you don’t like your house…don’t say something about it…leave first and then burn your house down.)
On Monday night, Duterte challenged Pacquiao to name corrupt government agencies or else he would tell the people not to vote for him in the 2022 national elections.
The President claimed that the senator had supposedly said that the current administration is “three times more corrupt” than the previous one.
Reporters have been reaching out to Pacquiao’s camp for comment on Duterte’s remarks against the senator but have yet to receive a response as of writing.
This was not the first time Duterte chided Pacquiao. Previously, he told Pacquiao to “study first” after the latter found as “lacking” the Chief Executive’s recent stance on the country’s maritime dispute with China.
Earlier, PDP-Laban executive director Ron Munsayac, who is allied with Pacquiao, said the senator intends to stay with the party.
According to Munsayac, members of PDP-Laban are still “confident” in Pacquiao’s leadership.