Pangilinan's remark defending Mar Roxas 'noxious nonsense' —Palace

Malancañang on Saturday slammed Senator Francis Pangilinan for saying that President Duterte's blaming senatorial bet Mar Roxas for the deaths of  44 police commandos in 2015 was a "diversionary tactic" to divert public attention from the administration's  failures.

Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo in a statement said Pangilinan's "diversionary tactics" claim "is noxious nonsense."

According to Panelo, "The achievements of the administration far exceed that of the administration of his idol, PNoy (former President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III), where incompetence and trust issues among its top officials were prevalent."

Panelo cited as examples the bungled police operation in Mamasapano, Maguindanao in 2015 and the relief and rehabilitation mess in the wake of the killer super Typhoon Yolanda in 2013.

Panelo went on saying that "Previous administrations pale in comparison with President Duterte’s war on drugs, on criminality, on corruption, and on terrorism as well as his Build Build Build infrastructure program."

Then he made a litany of what he claimed as the present administrations' shining achievements.

He said the Duterte administration has achieved many firsts in its almost three years of governance owing to the President’s political will and disaffection about powerful private and proprietary interests of some, such as:

• the free tuition in state colleges and universities,
• free irrigation for farmers,
• universal health care for all Filipinos,
• free medicine for indigent Filipinos and institutionalized free school feeding program for public school children,
• collection of billions of taxes from errant billionaire businessmen,
• salary increases of police and military personnel and teachers,
• firing of an array of top government officials either allied to him or closely identified with him,
• the passage of ease in doing business law,
• the issuance of an executive order on freedom of information,
• the establishment of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Mindanao,
• the veto of the unconscionable P95.3B pork barrel, and
• the crushing of the Marawi rebellion, among many other hitherto accomplishments.

Moreover, Panelo said the achievements of this administration have resulted in "stratospheric public satisfaction, approval and trust in favor of President Duterte and his administration."

Earlier on Saturday, Pangilinan said Duterte used "diversionary tactics" in order to turn the public's attention away from the administration's failures and their candidates' poor track records.

In a statement, the Liberal Party president said the Mamasapano incident has been investigated by the Senate, and that appropriate charges were already filed against those involved and these are being handled by the courts. —Virgil Lopez/LBG, GMA News