Criticisms are good, but look who’s talking — Malacañang

Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar (left) said Sunday that President Rodrigo Duterte (right) welcomed criticism but was particular of who were dishing them out. INQUIRER FILES

President Duterte does not abhor criticism, but could not stand bigotry — or so Malacañang says.

Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar made this claim on Sunday hours after Duterte delivered scathing remarks against the United Nations and his fiercest critic, Sen. Leila de Lima.

“The President is a straight-talker. He doesn’t beat around the bush. He just goes straight to the point. He’s a very pragmatic President,” Andanar said in an interview over state radio DZRB.

Asked if the President despised opposition to his policies, he said: “I don’t think so. He does not detest criticism of his policies.”

“What the President does not like are questions and criticisms coming from people who obviously have preconceived notion against his policies,” the Palace official said.

The loudmouth Duterte made a stinging rebuke of the UN for allegedly meddling in the country’s domestic affairs after its officials expressed concern over the spiraling drug killings since he occupied Malacañang on June 30.

He called the UN and its officials “inutile, moron and dimwit” for raising the issue of human rights violations regarding his administration’s bloody drug war.

The President also lashed out at De Lima, who called for a Senate inquiry into the drug killings, for supposedly receiving bribe money from drug convicts inside the state penitentiary in Muntinlupa City. He claimed that the pay-offs were made through her driver “who is also her lover.”