Duterte teases Alvarez: I’m sorry I cannot agree with divorce bill

President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday said he cannot support the proposed divorce bill as his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, does not agree with it.

While he was greeting guests during the change of command in the Armed Forces of the Philippines held in Camp Aguinaldo, Duterte teased Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, saying that he should talk to the younger Duterte regarding the bill.

“I am sorry but I cannot follow your...my daughter is not happy with that. Really. Mag-usap na lang kayo ni Sara,” he told Alvarez amid the crowd's laughter.

The House of Representatives passed House Bill 7303 or the proposed Act Instituting Absolute Divorce and Dissolution of Marriage in the Philippines on third and final reading.

However, there is no counterpart bill in the Senate.

In February, Alvarez was the target of Sara's tirades over the Speaker's comments about her move to launch a regional political party not affiliated with the ruling PDP-Laban.

The President had downplayed the tiff between the two, saying it was nothing more than an intrigue being floated in media. — Marlly Rome Bondoc/RSJ/BM, GMA News