Sen. Richard Gordon. Screen grab / Senate PRIB file photo
MANILA, Philippines — “Siya ay idolo ng mga bulag [He’s the idol of the blind].”
This was how Senator Richard Gordon described President Rodrigo Duterte, who recently campaigned against the senator anew.
After Duterte endorsed 17 senatorial candidates for the 2022 polls, the President also said the voting public should “remove” Gordon from the Senate, branding him as “boastful” and calling him out for “shouting” during the Senate’s Pharmally probe.
“You know any politician that is not boastful or shouts? Everybody does that including the incumbent, almighty President Duterte himself,” Gordon said in an ANC interview when asked regarding Duterte’s latest remark against him.
“He said that’s boastful? Nagmumura siya, nagpup*tangina siya. Minumura niya ang Diyos [He curses, he says son of a b*tch. He curses at God] and how dare he say I’m boastful? I’m not boastful. I’m just saying what I see the way it is. Lumalabas ‘yung karumihan ng gobyerno niya [The filthiness of his government is showing],” the senator added.
Gordon also took a dig at Duterte’s campaign promises, saying debates should be further prod candidates about their plans for the country.
“Papaano mo gagawin yang sinasabi mo? Kung tinanong natin si Duterte nung araw, sinasabi niya in six months wala na yang droga…Meron pa ring drugs? Sorry, meron pa ring drugs,” the senator said.
(How will you do what you are promising? If we asked Duterte before, he said he will eradicate drugs in six months…Are there still drugs? Sorry, there are still drugs.)
He also pointed to Duterte’s promise to ride a jet ski to the Spratly Islands and plant a Philippine flag there. The President himself has said this was a “pure campaign joke.”
“‘Pag tinanong natin yan baka nagkaroon ng mulat ang tao at hindi siya naging idolo ng mga bulag. Siya ay idolo ng mga bulag. At magalit na kayo sa akin mga trolls, bayad kayo. Bayad ang trolls. Alam natin yan wag tayong maglokohan. Bayad yang mga trolls…That is a lie. I will not will not win on a lie, I will rise and fall on truth,” Gordon added.
(If we had asked those questions before, the public may have had their eyes opened and he will not be an idol of the blind. He is the idol of the blind. And you can get angry at me but you trolls, you are being paid. Trolls are paid…That is a lie. I will not win on a lie, I will rise and fall on truth.)
Gordon has been at the receiving end of tirades from the President since last year as the Senate blue ribbon committee investigated allegedly overpriced purchases made by the government at the height of the pandemic in 2020. Gordon chairs the said panel.
In a partial draft report prepared by Gordon and released in February this year following multiple hearings, Duterte was described as having “betrayed the public trust.”
The draft report pointed to the President’s “threats, his non-action on this gargantuan scam and in a time of grave danger, his cover-up efforts, his tyrannical use of presidential powers to prevent officials and employees from participating in the hearings.”
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