Duterte camp denies campaign being financed by mining firms

The camp of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte on Friday denied allegations that his campaign was being financed by mining firms.

“For the record, our media operations are not receiving funds from one Manny Zamora and one Dennis Uy or their reported mining firms,” Duterte’s spokesperson Peter Tiu Laviña said in a statement.

Laviña issued the statement after Liberal Party stalwart Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice accused Duterte that his campaign was being financed by mining magnates. Erice challenged the tough-talking mayor to disclose his link to Zamora and Uy.

“It is totally unfair that our winning efforts are being or will be attributed to others,” Laviña said.

In his previous speeches, Duterte repeatedly said he would not receive money or any contribution from people with vested interest in government.

Laviña also denied reports that the Duterte camp had a public relations group to take care of his campaign.

Erice said reports reaching the LP revealed that Zamora, founder of mining firm Nickel Asia Corp., had been helping Duterte with his media campaign.

“There is no truth as well that we have any public relations operations,” Laviña said.

He said their “media operations banked solely on a well-planned and well-executed media liaison work based in a small office in Davao City.”

“We relied on the capacity, generosity and creativity of our team, volunteers and supporters both in the mass media (fourth estate) as well as social media (fifth estate),” he said.

Laviña also denied LP accusations that Lito Banayo, known to be close to Zamora, was part of their media group.

“For the record, Lito Banayo is not a member of our media group. In fact, it is public knowledge that we asked him to take a leave as volunteer last year when Duterte was not yet even a declared or registered candidate,” he said.

He said the success of their media operations was because of Duterte and his excellent leadership.

“If our media operations are succeeding, it is because of our excellent leader in Duterte and hard work, and also because of the string of blunders by the LP. They, actually, have been providing ink for our mighty pen. Hence, in a sense, they have been supporting our media operations,” he said.

“In calling for transparency, our unsolicited advice to those with ‘lying patterns’ (LP) is to look themselves in the mirror,” he added. RC