Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer Mar Roxas and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer Mar Roxas lashed out at his rival, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, on Monday, calling his friend-turned-tormentor “a threat to democracy” and a liar.
President Aquino’s anointed successor also likened Duterte, presidential candidate of PDP-Laban, to the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, the father and namesake of vice presidential aspirant, Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
He made the statement moments after the latest Social Weather Station pre-election survey showed that Duterte has taken the top spot from perennial survey frontrunner Sen. Grace Poe.
“Duterte is the most dangerous thing to happen to our country since Ferdinand Marcos,” Roxas said in an interview.
“He’s a threat to democracy because it’s his way or no way,” he said. “He is a threat to our way of life because if you will confront him with the truth, he will answer you with invectives, insults or bullets.”
Should Duterte win the presidency, Roxas warned that the country would be under a “one-man rule.”
“He’s the judge, jury and executioner… (But) we’re in a democracy,” he said.
He also lambasted Duterte for promising to stamp out crimes nationwide within the first six months for his presidency.
He noted that the latest statistics released by the Philippine National Police showed that Davao had the most number of recorded murders in the country since 2008.
The city, where Duterte served as mayor for 20 years, also ranked second in homicides and third in rape cases among chartered cities.
Roxas said the illegal drug trade has remained rampant in Davao despite Duterte’s decades-long control of the local leadership.
“He’s a liar… He couldn’t do it in Davao, how could he do it all over the country?” he said. SFM
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