Duterte asks Roxas: Stop using plane of trader linked to mining, customs violations

LAPU-LAPU CITY, Cebu — For delicadeza’s sake, Davao City Mayor and presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte has asked Liberal Party (LP) presidential candidate Mar Roxas to stop using a private plane owned by mining businessman Francis Enrico “Eric” Guttierez during his provincial visits.

Duterte said Guttierez did not pay customs duties when he brought the plane into the country.

“Walang bayad yan. Yung eroplano pinapasok, libre yan. Tapos sabihin ni Roxas na hindi siya corrupt? Sabi ko sa kanya, ang mayayaman iba kung magnakaw. Yumayaman,” he said in a press conference during his Cebu visit on Thursdayafternoon. (No customs duties were paid for the plane.  The airplane came in free of tax.  And then, Roxas says he’s not corrupt? I tell him, the rich has a different way of stealing. They get richer.)

Asked if he could prove his claims, Duterte told reporters to check Bureau of Customs (BOC) records.

“Bakit nagkaroon ng tax waive? Hindi ka naman religious institution. Hindi ka naman charitable institution. Bakit ka nagpapasok ng ilang eroplano pati helicopter ng libre? Walang pisong ibinayad.”   (Why was there a tax waiver? You’re not a religious institution. You’re not a charitable institution. Why did you allow several airplanes and a helicopter to enter the country for free? Not a even a single peso was paid for the airplane.)

Duterte is also asking the media to check how much Guttierez paid as penalty for alleged violations made by his Agusan del Norte mining operations.

“You over-mined. You were fined P77 million. You only paid P7 million? Somebody has to pay for this,” he said.

If elected president, Duterte said he would look into abuses made by Guttierez in his mining operations, including his failure to pay customs duties for his planes.

“Bakit nila inabuso? (Why did they commit abuses?) I will require them to restore the destroyed environment. Even if I have to file a case against you (Guttierez) and confiscate everything. I’ll tell you (Guttierez) to rehabilitate the environment,” he added.

Duterte arrived in Cebu at noontime on Thursday.

He offered a wreath at the monument of Lapu-Lapu in Barangay Mactan in Lapu-Lapu City and met with employees of the Mactan Export Processing Zone (MEPZ) for a dialogue before he traveled to Danao City, located 47.8 kilometers north of Cebu City.

Duterte’s Cebu visit is part of his Rondaserye.

In his presscon, Duterte was asked what he meant when he earlier said he would run the country like a “dictator” if elected president.

According to Duterte, a dictator is like a conductor of an orchestra.

“You have to dictate the running of government, the executive department on your own terms. You cannot initiate changes or form anything there without dictating,” he said.

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano described Duterte as both a strong and democratic leader.

A dictator takes control of the executive, the legislative and the judiciary, and uses the power of the military and the police on people who will go against him, but Duterte will use the military and the police to enforce the law, suppress violence, and address the country’s drugs problem, according to Cayetano.  SFM