Duterte not slighted by UP student’s questioning

Presidential candidate Mayor Rodrigo Duterte makes his way amidst the welcoming crowd at the Provincial Capitol of Rizal during a visit on Monday, March 7, 2016. INQUIRER PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

PRESIDENTIAL candidate and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte on Monday said that he did not feel slighted by the way he was asked by a freshman student from the University of the Philippines Los Baños in a forum last week.

In an interview in Tacloban City, Duterte said that he understands why Stephen Villena acted the way he did because he was once a student.

“Disrespected? No. I was once a student. Gano’n talaga ang mga students. You don’t expect these students to be all prim and proper,” Duterte said.

“Those are the ways of the youth and I can understand,” he added.

Villena was cyberbullied after Duterte’s supporters claimed that he disrespected the mayor. Hateful pages calling for the student’s death have since appeared on Facebook.

Duterte then called his supporters to refrain from attacking his critics, reminding them that everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

“We respect each other’s opinions. We always say that it’s OK if we disagree. And I may not agree with what you said or say, but I will defend your right to say it. That’s how it should be,” the mayor said.

He assured his “over-enthusiastic” supporters that “everything is going well.”

Villena has aired his side on the issue in an open letter, saying that he did not mean to disrespect the presidential candidate when he pressed for answers to his question.

“To be clear, it was Mayor Duterte who was in a hurry to leave. The spliced video that was uploaded [on] the [Internet} did not show the full exchange between me and Mayor Duterte. The cut video somehow made it appear na pinapauwi ko na si Mayor. Hindi po, sya po ang nagmadali na umuwi….The end result was that the people who only saw the shortened video but did not participate in the forum somehow got the impression that I was bastos, arrogante, walang modo,” he said.

He said that he did not intend to appear arrogant when he quizzed Duterte.

“I am not exactly suave and charming when I speak. This is probably why I was seen as insensitive. But let me just say this: MY PERCEIVED LINGUISTIC IMPERFECTION IN NO WAY IMPLIES AN ARROGANT DISPOSITION,” he said.

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