Vice President Sara Duterte (left) calls a mere “trial by publicity” the ongoing investigation of alleged sex offender and televangelist Apollo Quiboloy. (File photo from Inday Sara Duterte’s Facebook page)
MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte has been warned that her attendance at the prayer rallies — where the administration and the First Lady herself were attacked verbally — may send wrong signals, considering that she is still part of the cabinet.
House Deputy Speaker David Suarez and 1-Rider party-list Representative Ramon Rodrigo Gutierrez on Monday said that while Duterte has the right to her free speech, attendance to prayer rallies organized to support Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KJC) founder Apollo Quiboloy may be misconstrued.
During the rallies, Duterte’s father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, accused incumbent President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of aiming for term extension in pushing for charter change.
Meanwhile, former Biliran lawmaker Glenn Chong threatened to slap First Lady Liza Araneta-Marcos.
“We respect everyone’s right to freedom of expression. I suppose the attendance of certain personalities at the rally could always be construed as a personal exercise of that right, but given the positions that we are in, we have to consider, of course, the intricacies that are involved,” Gutierrez said.
“Personally, I will not make any calls, but I hope that we consider the messaging that it might promote, especially given the statements made in that rally, because when one attends a rally and statements are made, though you might not personally agree to it, your mere attendance might be misconstrued by other people,” he said.
“So, I think that’s food for thought,” he added.
Suarez urged the Vice President — who aside from being Marcos’ running mate in the 2022 elections, is holding the Department of Education (DepEd) portfolio — to understand the mood in the rallies that she is attending.
According to Suarez, the sentiment over the pro-Quiboloy rallies have been so anti-administration.
“I think maybe in the next few chances we should be aware of what the events we are attending are about, because people can see the tenor of that prayer rally. I think the anti-administration sentiment, and the calls being made by people there are very strong,” Suarez said.
“Of course, being part of the cabinet of President Bongbong Marcos, it sends the wrong signal especially for me because we fought for both of them, and they won because of the call for unity,” the lawmaker explained.
“That should be what we would see from our leaders — unity and helping each other […] So, I think we need to be a little bit more prudent and proper in deciding what events to attend,” he added.
Vice President Duterte’s attendance to pro-Quiboloy rallies have been scrutinized, with Senator Risa Hontiveros saying that the Education Secretary should channel her energy towards more worthy causes than defending Quiboloy — who is also being accused of raping women, and engaging in child abuse and human trafficking.
READ: VP Sara chided for defending Quiboloy
ACT Teachers party-list Representative France Castro also accused Duterte of coddling an alleged “child rapist” and “human trafficker.”
READ: Solon on VP Sara: ‘She’s coddling Quiboloy who’s an accused child rapist’
Last January 28, Duterte went to a prayer rally in Davao City after being present at the Bagong Pilipinas rally at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila.
At the Davao prayer rally, Duterte’s brother and Davao city Mayor Sebastian Duterte called on Marcos to resign, if he did not love or have aspirations for the country.
The Vice President said the Davao Mayor may have been coming from “a place of brotherly love,” to seemingly protest the despicable treatment she had received from Marcos’ circle.
READ: Marcos ‘resign’ – Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte
READ: VP Duterte on Baste’s call for Marcos to resign: It’s brotherly love
Then, at the same rally, former president Duterte also claimed that Marcos allegedly uses drugs, adding that the administration is pushing for charter change to extend the term of the President.
Duterte, during another prayer rally last Tuesday, repeated this claim, saying that Marcos and his allies aim for term extension — which key lawmakers denied.
READ: Duterte accuses Marcos of aiming term extension like his father