Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte. Photo by City Information Office
The Senate blue ribbon committee will summon Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte and his brother-in-law Mans Carpio in the next blue ribbon committee hearing to explain their alleged participation in the allegedly corrupt “Davao Group” within the Bureau of Customs (BOC).
Committee chairman Senator Richard Gordon said Duterte and Carpio will be invited to attend the hearing on Thursday, Sept. 7.
“Ipapatawag natin at para matapos kaagad ‘yan dahil ako’y aalis, mayroon akong mga meeting sa ibang bansa. September 7 papatawag natin ‘yan. Hopefully, hindi naman tayo mapahiya,” Gordon said in an interview with GMA’s Unang Balita on Monday.
(We will invite them so that it gets done as soon as possible because I’m leaving, I have meetings abroad. We’ll invite them on September 7. Hopefully, we won’t lose face.)
But Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, who moved last Thursday to invite the presidential son and son-in-law, said it was only because of “public pressure” that made Gordon finally decide to invite Duterte and Carpio.
“Nakaramdam lang si Senator Gordon ng public pressure. Bibigay din pala,” he said in a text message.
(Senator Gordon just felt the public pressure. He gave in after all.)
“Anyway, regardless whether they would cooperate or not, I will be prepared to confront them on Thursday,” he said.
Last Thursday, the two senators clashed and traded insults during the investigation on the P6.4 billion “shabu” shipment from China that went past the BOC last May. The Davao Group allegedly facilitated the delivery of the contraband, according to Customs fixer Mark Taguba II.
READ: Trillanes, Gordon trading insults mars BOC hearing
Earlier, Gordon and Senate Majority leader Tito Sotto III said Duterte and Carpio’s role in the Davao Group should be first established with evidence before inviting them to the hearing.
This made Trillanes tag the committee as “comite de abswelto” and chided Gordon and Sotto for lawyering for Duterte and Carpio.
In the interview, Gordon, however, stressed that even the son or relative of President Duterte should not be spared from any investigations.
“Pinatatawag na namin ‘yung dalawa sapagkat kahit anong gawin ninyo, kahit anong gawin ko, sinasabi natin na hearsay, sinasabi nating sila ay anak ng Pangulo, sila ay kamag-anak ng Pangulo, dapat ipatawag. And that is why I agree na ipatawag in the first place,” he said.
(We’re inviting them both because whatever you do, whatever I do, even though we call it hearsay, or say they’re relatives of the President, they still need to be summoned. And that’s why I agree that they’re invited in the first place.)
Gordon also belied Trillanes’s accusation that he and Senate majority leader Tito Sotto III were blocking the motion to invite Duterte and Carpio to protect them.
“Hindi totoo ‘yung sinasabi niyang hinaharang namin, na hinaharang ni Senator Sotto (It’s not true what they’re saying that we’re blocking it, that Senator Sotto is blocking the motion),” he said. JE