VICE PRESIDENT Sara Duterte claimed to have no information on the alleged plan of the Marcos administration to suspend his brother, Mayor Sebastian Duterte and Vice Mayor J. Melchor Quitain.
In an interview on the sidelines of the Independence Day commemoration at Rizal park on Wednesday, Sara said, “Wala ko nahibal-an na information about sa suspension ni Mayor Sebastian ‘Baste’ Duterte. Kung duna man ingon ana nga papel or document nga suspension niya, hulaton nalang nato (I don’t have any information on the suspension of Mayor Sebastian Duterte. If there is a paper or document on the suspension, then will wait for it).”
“Let us wait kung unsa mga legal actions ni Mayor Baste,” she added.
Recently, Interior and Local Government Secretary Benhur Abalos, Jr. dismissed speculations on Mayor Sebastian Duterte’s looming suspension, during President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s visit to Tagum City last week to distribute financial aid to farmers and fishermen affected by El Niño.
“As far as the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) is concerned, right now, there is no truth to that. It’s gossip,” said Abalos.
Abalos also expressed confusion about where former Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque got his information.
Meanwhile, the mayor downplayed rumors of his removal in an interview with reporters on Saturday, June 8, at Kapitan Tomas Monteverde Sr. Central Elementary School.
“While I’m here now because I don’t know, there are rumors that I’ll be removed, I’ll be suspended. For me, you just keep going, whatever happens, even I’ll disappear since the city is peaceful, so far. But it’s just gossip that we have to wait and it will come. Then you just keep going,” Duterte said.
“The important thing is that we are government people. Politics is chaos, the other ones fight and at the end of the day it’s up to them what their method is, I have mine too,” he added
Photo: Bing Gonzales
