FILE PHOTO: Senator Richard Gordon and President Rodrigo Duterte. INQUIRER FILE PHOTOS
MANILA, Philippines — Senator Richard Gordon shrugged off President Rodrigo Duterte’s threat that he would campaign against him supposedly for being “unfit to be a senator of this republic.”
“Hindi naman ako naghahanap ng campaign manager,” Gordon, chairman of the Senate blue ribbon committee, said in an interview on Tuesday.
(I’m not looking for a campaign manager.)
“Kung nag apply sya eh, sorry na lang Mr. President, hindi ko kayang kumuha ng campaign manager na hindi pinagtatangol ang tao na nahihirapan,” he added.
(If he’s applying, then sorry Mr. President, I can’t hire a campaign manager who can’t defend people who are suffering)
Gordon has been the latest subject of Duterte’s tirades as the senator led the probe on the allegedly overpriced medical supplies procured by the government last year to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
READ: Duterte fuels feud with Gordon anew: I will campaign against you
One of the personalities dragged into the controversy is the President’s former economic adviser Michael Yang.
Yang, who allegedly helped finance Pharmally Pharmaceutical Corp., which bagged the P8.7 billion deals with the government, was even ordered arrested by the Senate for being evasive during last week’s hearing of the blue ribbon panel.
READ: ‘Evasive’ Yang, Pharmally exec face another arrest warrant from Senate
“I would like to remind Senator Gordon na (that) I will campaign against you for being unfit to be a senator of this republic,” Duterte said in a taped speech aired Tuesday morning.
“Well, others are trying to be a Chinese when they are not. Ikaw naman (While) you are trying to be American na hindi ka naman talaga totoo na Amerikano (when you’re really not an American),” he added.