Word war follows NPA raid on firm owned by Lorenzos

Weeks before communist rebels raided its facilities in Mindanao, Lapanday Food Corp.’s office in Makati City came under attack by members of a militant farmers’ group that had accused the firm of land grabbing. —LYN RILLON

DAVAO CITY—A civilian’s death following a communist New People’s Army (NPA) attack on Lapanday Food Corp. in Mandug village here last week has triggered a word war between the children of President Duterte and local broadcaster Maximo Solis.

Mayor Sara Duterte had earlier hit out at the NPA for the death of Larry Buenafe, a fish vendor who was killed when the rebels launched simultaneous attacks on three plants it owned on Saturday last week.

The rebels had admitted that its fighters already saw him tailing the Army’s armored personnel carrier but decided to set off an improvised explosive device anyway.

Buenafe died in hospital five days after the attack, which happened even as the mayor had offered localized talks with the NPA to spare the city from violence. In September last year, 15 people were killed when an improvised bomb exploded at a packed night market here, in an attack blamed on Islamic militants.

Sara, whose husband worked as a lawyer for Lapanday, blew her top when Solis — also known by his radio name Dodong — took to social media to criticize the mayor for allegedly using the incident as propaganda.

“It’s a pity, Larry had died already. Condolence to the family,” Solis said on Facebook Thursday. “Stop the use of Larry’s death as propaganda to circumvent the issue that the mayor’s husband and the vice mayor’s brother-in-law is a lawyer of Lapanday.”

The mayor posted a reply in a separate Facebook post. “Dodong Solis. Propaganda for what? Propaganda because he was victim of an NPA bomb?” she wrote.

Sara admitted that her husband Manases Carpio worked for Lapanday as a legal counsel, but she said it should not prevent her from condemning Buenafe’s death.

“I am fair game but do not touch my husband. Open your mouth again about my husband and I will tell your wife and your entire family about your secrets,” Sara said.

But Solis commented on Sara’s post, saying it was lamentable that “power can be very intoxicating.”

“Again, it’s sad for poor Larry’s family that his death is being used to divert the real issue. Pity the people,” he said.

Sara replied that she would not have minded criticisms had they spared her husband “who only worked for his client, never burned anything, never planted a bomb.”

“Don’t drag people who have nothing to do with issue. You hit me directly,” she said.

Her brother, Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte, joined the fray and told Solis he “wouldn’t think twice about clobbering you.” —ALLAN NAWAL