Palace dismisses ex-Pres. Duterte’s remark on Bongbong ‘dictatorship’

MANILA, Philippines —  Former President Rodrigo Duterte’s claim that President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. is “veering towards dictatorship” like his father is “a tale from a man prone to lying and inventing hoaxes,” the Palace said on Sunday. 

Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, was reacting to Duterte’s pronouncement during a rally in Mandaue City, Cebu on Saturday.

Bersamin described the former President’s remarks as “another budol (scam) emerging from a one-man fake-news factory.”

“We treat the former President’s baseless and ridiculous statements in the same way that Filipinos are dismissive of them: a tall tale from a man prone to lying and to inventing hoaxes,” Bersamin said in a statement.

“As our actions have consistently demonstrated, we will stay the course in upholding the Constitution, in adhering to the rule of law, and in respecting the rights of the people,” he added.

He also stressed that the current administration will not “backslide into the oppressive ways” of the previous one “when critics were jailed upon trumped-up charges and when kill orders were publicly issued with glee and obeyed blindly.”

“It is the leader of that troubled past who is depicting us as veering toward a system where anyone can be deprived of life, liberty, and property without due process of law, as many had been on his mere say-so as a tyrant who did not respect the rights of the people,” he added. 

This is not the first time Duterte talked about the issue on Marcos’ term-extension.

On April 15 last year, the former President warned that Marcos should be content and no longer eye for a term extension after his six-year rule. 

Duterte, at that time, aired his opposition to the government’s ongoing push for a Charter change during a rally in Davao del Norte.