Sara Duterte offers to join future trips to prevent ‘kissing incidents’

Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio offered to join her father, President Rodrigo Duterte, in any  future trips so she could prevent him from getting into another kissing incident, like that in South Korea where President Rodrigo Duterte snagged a kiss from a Filipina expat.

In a speech she gave on Friday, the president's daughter said, "When I heard that there was an incident in Korea, I thought of writing the Office of the Presidential Management Staff: Can you please, please send me an invitation every time you have events to make sure that Kris Aquino and Mocha Uson will not fight over (Duterte) again."

Mayor Duterte was referring to Assistant Secretary Uson's attempt to equate the president's kiss to that given to former Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr. as he was flying back to the Philippines. Aquino was assassinated on the airport tarmac moments after landing in Manila.

Kris Aquino, the late senator's youngest daughter, was offended by the comparison, and the president later apologized.

As for her request to join her father in his trips, Sara Duterte said she was willing to pay her own way. "Next time, I will join the president’s trips and will spend my own money — just to make sure that the kissing incident will not happen again."

President Duterte, in an attempt to explain the kiss away, said that he had kissed "a thousand ladies on the lips" and it was just his "style" as a politician. — Margaret Claire Layug/DVM, GMA News