LP dares Duterte: Prove kill claim

The administration coalition is moving to take apart Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte’s gloating on his macho ways as it challenged the leading presidential bet to separate fact from fiction on constantly expanding his purported kill list.

“If he is really fearless and he is proud of what he has done, he should prove it,” said Akbayan Rep. Barry Gutierrez, a Liberal Party (LP) spokesperson, in an interview with reporters.

“I think that as long as there is no declaration that this is what really happened, that this is what he did to this person, these are all just tall tales. I’d believe him if he gives us the details but so far he is short on the details and long on the narrative,” Gutierrez said.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., LP vice chair, said: “I don’t know where the braggadocio ends and reality starts. I wish I had killed more people so I could be more popular. The problem is the only time I fired at somebody, I missed everything.”

Gutierrez, whose party-list group is a member of coalition backing the Mar Roxas-Leni Robredo tandem in 2016, said it was easy for Duterte to claim that he gunned down somebody or burned a person alive in a car or killed 1,700 people but he hasn’t provided names nor dates or places of his kill list.

“I can say I killed (Jose) Rizal but you can’t jail me because of what I have said. A story is different from facts,” Gutierrez said.

Aside from proving his macho tales, Gutierrez said it was also important for the public to know if Duterte’s victims were indeed criminals or drug addicts, and not minors and journalists as his critics claimed.

Gutierrez said that if Duterte does not substantiate his boasts then “we’re just making fools of each other.”

He said he was “uncomfortable” to have a presidential candidate in this day and age run to have a campaign platform anchored on being a self-proclaimed killer.

Belmonte also complained why Roxas was being singled out as the culprit behind the disqualification cases against Duterte and Sen. Grace Poe. “You filed your own paper (certificate of candidacy), you wrote what you wanted to write but if you made a mistake, Mar is at fault,” Belmonte said.

He belittled the claim of Duterte’s supporters that at least 50 lawmakers were poised to jump on the Duterte bandwagon.

As far as he was concerned, Belmonte said that only Davao-based lawmakers were vocal about supporting Duterte’s presidential bid—Davao del Norte Gov. Rodolfo del Rosario, Davao City Representatives Isidro Ungab and Karl Nograles.

Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate also described as speculative Ungab’s claim that the Makabayan bloc would join the exodus to Duterte.

Zarate, who hails from Davao, said he had set aside his personal position on the “principled decision” of Makabayan bloc to support Senators Grace Poe and Francis Escudero.

“This was after the Oct. 16 deadline for candidacy filing and before our friend, Mayor Rody Duterte, decided to run. As Bayan Muna nominee, I see no reason why Bayan Muna and Makabayan will depart from the platform-based alliance it entered,” Zarate said.