Palace hits Robredo children’s tweets allegedly directed at Duterte

Malacañang on Thursday accused the two daughters of Vice President Leni Robredo of making veiled attacks on President Rodrigo Duterte after the onslaught of Typhoon Ulysses last week.

Duterte earlier slammed Robredo for allegedly questioning his whereabouts during a calamity, a charge the Vice President strongly denied.

Robredo’s daughters, however, had an exchange of Twitter messages seemingly directed at Duterte, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said at a news conference.

The Twitter messages did not specifically name Duterte.

Roque said that Tricia Robredo on November 14 asked her followers on Twitter “Tulog pa rin? Alas otso na.” Aika Robredo then replied “Sabado eh, weekend.”

“Hindi po nakakatulong na bagama’t hindi ko alam kung talagang nagsabi si Vice President kung nasaan si Presidente, eh tingnan ninyo ito, kung hindi man siya eh mayroong mga malapit sa kaniya na nagsabi,” he added.

He also cited the statement of Robredo’s spokesperson Barry Gutierrez, who reportedly criticized Duterte’s decision to spend most of his time in Malacañang while Ulysses battered Luzon.

The typhoon’s onslaught coincided with the virtual summit of Southeast Asian leaders and other regional powers attended by Duterte.

“So kung totoo, Vice President, na hindi mo sinabi nasaan ang Pangulo, iyong spokesperson mo did, scold your spokesperson; do not demand an apology from the President,” Roque said.

In response, Gutierrez tweeted that the typhoon killed Filipinos and brought devastation yet “this administration is now spending its time analyzing tweets by VP Leni’s daughters?!”

“Si VP Leni balik agad trabaho. Kayo tatlong araw na ito pa rin ang hanash. Sino nga uli ang namumulitika?” he asked.

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 the virtual 37th ASEAN Summit and Related Summits.—LDF, GMA News