MANILA, Philippines — Davao City 1st District Rep. Paolo Duterte trained his guns on Palace Press Officer Clarissa Castro, describing her recent statement against the Duterte administration as “reckless and historically ignorant.”
It comes after Castro, in a press briefing at the sidelines of the Asean Summit in Malaysia, described him and the other members of the Duterte family as “being inutile” in defending the country, calling them as being “Pro-China.”
“Before the Palace spokesman lecture anyone about ‘being inutile’ in defending our seas, she should first study the timeline and check the facts. Hindi puwedeng puro satsat lang sa camera, zero research. (She should not just blabber on camera without any research),” Duterte said.
He said that under the administration of his father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, the Armed Forces of the Philippines “reached a record level of modernization which it had not reached in decades.”
“Radars, missile systems, attack helicopters, naval assets, and better-equipped soldiers. That did not fall from the sky. That took political will and budget prioritization,” Duterte said.
He also said that Castro just called the modernized AFP as useless, and every soldier who risks his life and limb for this country is a joke if she described the previous administration as “inutile.”
“President Rodrigo Roa Duterte protected Filipino lives above all. He did not gamble our people for the sake of impressing foreign handlers or smiling for Washington photo-ops. He refused to be a pawn of the CIA. He refused to drag Filipinos into a war we cannot afford,” Duterte said.
Over the past few weeks, Duterte has criticized AFP Chief Romeo Brawner Jr. and Coast Guard commodore Jay Tarriela over their remarks on the Typhon missile that could potentially reach China.
