Duterte must have basis for criticizing Robredo —Palace

Malacañang on Wednesday presumed that President Rodrigo Duterte had a basis for claiming that Vice President Leni Robredo questioned his whereabouts during the onslaught of Typhoon Ulysses.

Speaking to CNN Philippines, Palace spokesperson Harry Roque said he was not sure whether Duterte had been misinformed after Robredo denied the President’s claim. 

“I am not sure and I do not know and my role as a spokesman basically is to clarify matters if what the President said is not clear, but I think what he said last night was already very clear,” Roque said.

“As far as the President’s statements are concerned, I think the President would not have been as irritated as he was, if he did not have personal knowledge that the Vice President was asking for his whereabouts, either publicly or privately,” he added. 

Roque said he had no personal knowledge whether or not the Vice President asked for the whereabouts of the President.

“I do not know if there was misinformation,” he said.

Duterte spent more than 20 minutes of his hour-long weekly address to the nation on Tuesday night to lash out at Robredo, his political rival whom he believed was unfit to lead a country. 

The President insisted that he was monitoring the typhoon last Thursday when Ulysses battered Luzon even as he attended a virtual summit of Southeast Asian leaders. 

Still, netizens expressed their displeasure over the President’s typhoon response by using the hashtag #NasaanAngPangulo. 

Duterte also claimed that Robredo gave orders to the military at the height of Ulysses’ onslaught.

Robredo, however, in her tweets connected netizens pleading for rescue to teams on the ground.

On Wedneday, Robredo brushed off Duterte's scathing comments that she did nothing for the government’s post-Typhoon Ulysses response, and that she is too weak to become President.

“'Pag sinabi mong wala akong ginagawa, karapatan mong sabihin ‘yan. 'Di ko dedepensahan ang sarili ko kasi alam ng tao na hindi 'yan totoo,” Robredo said in a chance interview in Ragay, Camarines Sur where she is set to turn over aid to typhoon victims there.

Likewise, the Vice President said she is too busy to address the President’s threats that he will make Robredo’s 2022 presidential run a nightmare, and that she is too weak to be President.

“That's very unpresidential. Karapatan naman niya ‘yun [na magsalita]. Matagal na niya 'yang sinasabi. Sinasabi niya na wala akong alam, kung anu-ano. Sa dami ng tinatrabaho natin, ‘yun pa ba ang aasikasuhin natin?” Robredo, a lawyer like Duterte, pointed out.

“You are presuming that I should be giving orders on the day of the storm. That is stupid… That is why you cannot be president. Mahina ka. You do not give orders on the day of the war, patay ka,” Duterte said on Monday.

“Marami ako sabihin sa'yo. Reserba ko na lang. When you start your campaign, waswasan kita. This is your nightmare,” he warned.

In response, Robredo on Monday night branded Duterte a "misogynist" and said she was busy with relief work for the typhoon victims. —KG/AOL, GMA News