DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 16 September) — AKO Bicol partylist Rep. Zaldy Co is apparently “attacking and telling lies” against the Dutertes, Davao City mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte said Sunday.
Co, who was also a House of Representatives appropriations committee chair, told reporters on Wednesday that the city is under “silent martial law” and that the Dutertes, including Vice President Sara Duterte, are known for “spending much government money,” thus “she is not to be trusted.”
In response, the city mayor badmouthed Co and told him he is “paitoy-itoy” (acting as a lapdog) of the national government and to House Speaker Martin Romualdez, a cousin of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
He even called both Co and Romualdez as “brats in the government.”
“Nganong kaingon siya [Co] ana, taga-dinhi ba siya? So two million ka buok unya giboto ko sa mga tao, I got 89 percent of the votes, kay nahadlok ning 89 percent ning mga niboto sa ako dinhi? Gi-oppress diay nako ang mga tao diri?” Duterte said in his Basta Dabawenyo podcast uploaded on his CM Baste Duterte Facebook page, Sunday evening.
(Translation: Why did he say that, is he from here? So two million Dabawenyos, and the people voted for me, I got 89 percent of the votes because they were scared of me? Did I oppress the people here?)
The mayor also said Co and other House members only tried to evade issues, being at the center of the controversy.
He also called out Romualdez for being silent and letting the House members, who the mayor called “bootlickers,” attack her elder sister Sara.
“But why don’t you use yourself, Tintin [Romualdez], comment daw (make a comment), I would like you to say something,” Duterte dared the House Speaker.
In an earlier statement, the Vice President accused Co and Romualdez of “controlling” the national budget allocations.
She also said she will “defer entirely to the discretion and judgment of the committee regarding its (Office of the Vice President) budget proposal for 2025”.
On Tuesday, she was a no-show during the resumption of the House appropriations committee’s deliberation of the proposed 2025 budget of her office.
Later on, the committee recommended slashing the proposed P2.037-billion OVP budget to P733.19 million.
In a Teleradyo interview on Friday which was streamed on YouTube, Marikina Second District Rep. and committee vice chair Stella Luz Quimbo said the OVP’s budget was cut due to an “excessive cost of maintaining numerous satellite offices, overlapping programs with other agencies, and issues with low budget utilization and implementation problems.” (Ian Carl Espinosa/MindaNews)
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