Presidential aspirants Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and Mar Roxas. FILE PHOTOS
Administration presidential candidate Mar Roxas on Wednesday pressed on with his aggressive attack on rival Rodrigo Duterte, censuring the latter for saying that he would engage China in a shooting war to resolve the territorial dispute over the West Philippine Sea.
“You are full of hot air!” Roxas said of Duterte in Filipino during a news briefing that followed a campaign rally in Alubijid town, Misamis Oriental.
“I will not let you to bring our country to uncertainty and danger. I am here. I will fight you, Mayor Duterte,” Roxas said in an unusually testy speech.
Roxas stressed that the lives of millions of Filipinos and the country’s security were at stake in the territorial conflict with China over the resource-rich South China Sea region.
He described the Davao mayor as “egotistic” and “self-absorbed in your world which only you understand because you’re narrow-minded.”
“(Duterte) said he would go to China and challenge China to a fistfight or shootout. That’s his answer to the problem in the West Philippine Sea. What kind of foolishness is that?” he said.
‘Tough guy image’
“Is that your foreign policy? Is that the kind of leadership you will bring to the country? Being the Commander in Chief is a tough job. You don’t put our troops in peril without justification or just because of your tough guy image,” Roxas added.
“This problem will not be solved just because you dared China,” he said.
Roxas again chided Duterte for “fooling” the Filipino voters with his promise to curb criminality all over the country in six months should he become president.
He said data from the Philippine National Police showed that Davao City, which Duterte has ruled for two decades, was the fourth most dangerous city in the country with a total of 37,684 recorded crime incidents from 2010 to 2015.
During the same five-year period, he said Davao was the city with the most number of murders with 1,032 cases and was second with the highest homicide incidents with 245.
Davao also recorded the second highest rape cases in the country with 843 incidents and third in robbery cases with 7,001, he added.
“These (crime statistics) are based on (police) blotter. These were not invented or imagined. Don’t fool us, Duterte. What you’re saying are just empty promises,” Roxas said.
Roxas also assailed Duterte’s penchant for attacking his opponents with invectives, saying this was proof of the mayor’s lack of respect for women and the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community.
Narrow, limited
He said Duterte’s rudeness also mirrored his “narrow and limited views.”
The Davao mayor had called Roxas “bayot” (Visayan for gay) and “bakla” (Filipino for gay) for his supposed failures as interior secretary.
“You’re really the greatest danger that this country is facing. If you’re the driver, you will let this country fall from a cliff because of your ego,” Roxas said.
“A real man is not loud and does not crave for attention. A real man is respectful and knows his limitations,” he said.