•Sara, Hontiveros word war heats up over Dengvaxia issue
Mayor Sara Duterte slammed Senator Risa Hontiveros over her call for Public Attorney’s Office chief Persida Acosta to resign for reportedly fanning the fears surrounding vaccination.
Duterte, on her Instagram account, said that Hontiveros should be the one to resign.
“PAO chief Acosta is doing her job in assisting indigent litigants who want to sue,” she wrote. “Dengvaxia eroded the parents’ confidence in vaccines and you can easily verify this if you talk to the people in barangays instead of putting your head inside your behind all the time.”
“Do not wag the dog. Devangxia killed innocent individuals,” she said, adding that the senator should think of solutions and not just criticize.
Meanwhile, the senator responded on Tuesday, saying, “Every time she attacks me, she validates my work and vindicates my positions on important issues.”
“Every insult from the mayor is a reading on the barometer I can use, second to none, to confirm how effective my office is in advancing democratic interests and goals,” she added.
But Duterte hit back in an Instagram post yesterday, as she wrote:
“An attack is an attack. Don’t use attack, validation and vindication in one sentence.”
“Otherwise, your attacks against the administration are validations to say that PRD is correct and therefore he is vindicated,” the mayor added.
Meanwhile, despite the political issues on Dengvaxia, the mayor joined the regional Department of Health (DOH) in their campaign toward measles immunization. The DOH Davao Region released a video clip featuring Duterte calling on parents to get their children vaccinated.
“RD (Anabelle) Yumang approached me to campaign among the parents to get their vaccinated against the measles,” Duterte said.
“She asked to enjoin parents especially in the communities to get their unvaccinated child to support house to house immunization programs conducted by the regional DOH,” she added.
The mayor, however, qualified that there is no outbreak in the city. “We have it under control. I think this is the effect of last year’s immunization given the outbreak. What we are doing is to make sure that there will be no outbreak again this year,” she said.
