Baste clarifies apology for remarks vs Marcos

Sebastian Duterte—OFFICE OF SEBASTIAN DUTERTE                     Imee Marcos—SENATE PRIB

Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte was not amused by Sen. Imee Marcos’ account of how he supposedly apologized to her for his harsh remarks against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

In a post on Facebook, the mayor clarified that while he indeed said sorry to the senator, it was simply out of pity.

“Madame Imee, let me clarify because you’re already using it in your drama there in the media. I asked for forgiveness because I felt sorry for you, not because of what I said about your sibling, the President,” Duterte said in the post on Friday.

Duterte was referring to the senator’s remarks during an interview on Jan. 30 when she said that he apologized to her for saying that the President was “lazy and [lacking in] compassion.”

“Mayor Baste Duterte approached me. He apologized over and over again,” the senator told reporters.

Family feud

But the Davao City mayor challenged the senator’s account and told her to stop spinning the thread on what actually transpired.“Stop it with your words. I let it pass the first time, but you still haven’t stopped,” the mayor’s post said in Visayan.

The Dutertes and the camp of Mr. Marcos have been embroiled in a barrage of heated accusations since late January when the local chief asked the President to resign if he “does not have love and aspirations for the nation.”

READ: Sen. Imee says Baste already issued apology for ‘Marcos resign’ statement

This was fueled by the remark of the mayor’s father, former President Rodrigo Duterte, who accused the Chief Executive of once being in the narcolist of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, which denied the claim.

ICC probe

In response, Mr. Marcos laughed off the former president’s claim and dismissed it as a possible side effect of the use of the painkiller fentanyl, which Duterte admitted to have been using.

The tit-for-tat between the two families emerged after the Duterte camp claimed that the Marcos administration allowed prosecutors of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to enter the country to probe the extrajudicial killings during the Duterte administration.

The Marcos administration, however, has repeatedly denied the claim and disavowed knowledge of the arrival of ICC prosecutors to investigate the crimes against humanity charges against the former president. INQ