Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales has backed down on her previous statement against the rise of strongmen, saying she did not mean to take a swipe at President Rodrigo Duterte.
“If it happened to be a jab against him or about him, then I’m sorry,” Morales said in an interview with CNN Philippines talk show “The Source.”
“If it hurt him or it hit him, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to or I did not intend to hit him,” she added.
In a May 24 speech before the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Morales said: “Great countries do not need strongmen. They need strong institutions.”
Her speech came after President Duterte expressed anger over a Time magazine report that listed him among the world’s “strongmen,” alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Morales admitted she was “hurt” whenever the President, the father-in-law of her nephew, Manases Carpio, lashed out at her for her statements on issues such as his administration’s bloody war on drugs.
“If you are stoic about it … you’re insane. So, of course, I was hurt,” she said. —Vince F. Nonato