DAVAO CITY, Philippines\u2014With a fistful of pride, he must have raised her well.<\/p>\n
\u201cInday, don\u2019t apologize,\u201d Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte told his daughter, Mayor Sara Duterte, concerning last week\u2019s televised incident where she repeatedly punched a court sheriff carrying out a demolition order at an illegal settlement here.<\/p>\n
The younger Duterte, who on Saturday announced that she would go on leave on July 7 to face the consequences of her actions, is under investigation by the Department of the Interior and Local Government. A lawyer, the official could also face disciplinary action by the Integrated Bar of the Philippines.<\/p>\n
But on a local TV program on Sunday, her father declared: \u201cI\u2019m proud of you and I congratulate you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t worry about it, Inday,\u201d he said. \u201cI will let you run (for office) again so that you can do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n
A six-term city mayor before his daughter took his place in 2010, Rodrigo had drawn both praise and criticism for his peace and order drive that supposedly led to a drop in Davao\u2019s crime rate since the late 1990s.<\/p>\n
Time magazine dubbed him \u201cThe Punisher\u201d in a 2002 article, while human rights groups, including Amnesty International, had assailed him for allegedly tolerating extrajudicial killings by the so-called Davao Death Squad.<\/p>\n
He denied any hand in the killings and blamed gang wars for the deaths, which included those of known drug trade players and other crime suspects.<\/p>\n
Be happy<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIf ever you\u2019ll be dismissed, be proud of it because you were on the side of the poor,\u201d Rodrigo said in a message to his daughter.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019ll be disbarred, you celebrate and be happy in the thought that you were protecting the rights of the people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n On the program \u201cGikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa\u201d (From the Masses, For the Masses), the vice mayor said he was speaking not as a father making excuses for his child but as a former mayor who had similar brushes with court officials.<\/p>\n He maintained that demolition teams\u2014like the one that descended on Agdao district on Friday\u2014must cooperate with the local government to prevent any violence.<\/p>\n The elder Duterte said the eviction order against the slum dwellers might be legal, but the implementing sheriff Abe Andres failed to make the proper coordination with the mayor.<\/p>\n In front of news cameras, the 32-year-old mayor then threw four punches at Andres after he reportedly refused to heed her request for a two-hour stay of the demolition order so she could talk first to the settlers.<\/p>\n \u2018Nicaragdao\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n The urban poor group Kadamay claimed that 10 residents were wounded, including a 12-year-old girl, in the violence that broke out at the site before the mayor arrived.<\/p>\n The shantytown is in Barangay Soliman, which also earned the chilling name \u201cNicaragdao\u201d in the 1980s after urban hitmen from the communist New People\u2019s Army purportedly turned it into their killing field. Later, the area became known as the heartland of the anticommunist militia group Alsa Masa.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce you implement a court order at all costs, even at the expense of (other people\u2019s) lives, then you are treading on dangerous ground, on illegal ground,\u201d the vice mayor stressed. \u201cIf you insist on carrying out eviction orders without considering that people might get killed, that\u2019s insane.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf somebody got killed, what will happen? Is that still under the jurisdiction of the judge? No, that begins to be a concern of the local government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cHow can it be a direct assault on the judiciary when the mayor was only preventing a massacre from happening?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Vice Mayor Duterte also said the settlers had armed themselves with sharp objects to stop the demolition team, who in turn came with heavily armed escorts, including snipers.<\/p>\n He also had words for members of the judiciary: \u201cYou judges and sheriffs, look at your education. All demolitions in this country always end up in violent confrontations.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201c(The settlers\u2019) only fault is that they are poor. You mean to say you use government resources to wage war on the poor?\u201d he said. \u201cNever mind the rich, they can always buy land.\u201d Reports from Germelina Lacorte and Dennis Jay Santos, Inquirer Mindanao; Inquirer Research<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" DAVAO CITY, Philippines\u2014With a fistful of pride, he must have raised her well. \u201cInday, don\u2019t apologize,\u201d Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte told his daughter, Mayor Sara Duterte, concerning last week\u2019s televised incident where she repeatedly punched a court sheriff carrying out a demolition order at an illegal settlement here. The younger Duterte, who on Saturday announced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,37],"tags":[7589,1373,206130,7588,7386,7586],"byline":[],"source":[206070],"column":[],"editor":[],"videographer":[],"position":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n