Published May 10, 2021, 3:30 PM
Malacañang said President Duterte has nothing more to prove after Filipinos online called the Chief Executive a coward for backing from his challenge to Retired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio to a debate on the West Philippine Sea issue.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque (ALBERT ALCAIN/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO/MANILA BULLETIN)
Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque made the statement after the hashtag #DuterteDuwag (Duterte is a coward) trended on Twitter on Friday after Roque announced Duterte’s withdrawal from his challenge to the retired magistrate.
In his press briefing on Monday, Roque explained that President Duterte has shown the public his ability to debate when he ran for president in 2016.
Published May 10, 2021, 10:34 PM
After being ridiculed as a coward by Filipinos online, President Duterte said he was not afraid of retired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and that he backed out of his debate challenge to him because he forgot that Carpio was not the president.
President Duterte (Malacañang Photo)
Duterte made the statement days after the hashtag #DuterteDuwag (Duterte is a coward) trended on Twitter on Friday after the announcement of the President’s withdrawal from his challenge to the retired magistrate to have a debate about the West Philippine Sea.
In his pre-recorded public address on Monday evening, the President said he forgot that he was the president and not Carpio when he posed his challenge to the latter.
endIndex:
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 7) Since taking office, President Rodrigo Duterte has repeatedly blamed the Aquino administration for the loss of Scarborough Shoal (Bajo de Masinloc) to China and for allowing Beijing s reclamation activities in the West Philippine Sea up until now.
But for former Philippine envoy to the United Nations Lauro Baja, more than a blame game, the government should instead move forward and exhaust all possible remedies to enforce the United Nations-backed arbitral ruling that upheld the Philippines victory before it s too late. We should not go back. We should at most learn some lessons from that and move forward on how to enforce the arbitral tribunal, Baja told CNN Philippines
By HANA BORDEY, GMA News
Published May 7, 2021 11:38am Two senators on Friday said the debate between President Rodrigo Duterte and retired Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio on the West Philippine Sea will not benefit the Filipino people. “I doubt if the country will benefit from such a debate,” Senate President Vicente Sotto III said in a text message. Senate foreign relations committee chairman Aquilino Pimentel III likewise said that the debate is not needed, pointing out that the Filipino people are interested in more important matters such as food and livelihood. A formal public debate is not necessary because, one, it will not settle anything, two, it will only give to the entire world the impression that we are divided on the issue (when in reality we may not be),” Pimentel said.
2016 arbitral ruling has no enforcement mechanisms, Esperon says By HANA BORDEY, GMA News
Published May 7, 2021 10:28am Backing the statements of President Rodrigo Duterte, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon said the 2016 arbitral ruling, which invalidated China’s massive claims over the South China Sea, has no enforcement mechanism. ”Tama ang sinabi ng ating pangulo na papel nga yon kasi yon ang pinirmahan na dokumento pero kasi itong award na ito… it did not rule on the sovereignty over the islands,” Esperon said in an interview with Dobol B TV. (The President is right that it is just a paper. It did not rule on sovereignty over the islands.)