Duterte to campaign against Gordon

President Rodrigo Duterte has vowed to campaign against Senator Richard Gordon should he run for public office next year.

Gordon is leading the Senate investigation into the alleged irregularities in the government’s expenditures on COVID-19 response, which infuriated Duterte, who claimed there was no corruption behind the emergency purchases.

“I would just like also to remind Senator Gordon [that] I will campaign against you for being unfit to be a senator of this Republic,” the President said in a taped address aired Tuesday.

“Others are trying to be a Chinese when they are not and ikaw naman you are trying to be an American na hindi ka naman totoong Amerikano (when you are not).”

GMA News Online has reached out to Gordon for his comments but he has yet to reply as of posting time.

Duterte earlier accused senators of holding legislative inquiries for “exposure” in light of the upcoming elections.

“Every time that there is a committee hearing you subpoena more than a hundred resource persons and witnesses and more than half of that number comes from the government. Instead of working they are stuck attending hearings that last for more than five hours. Tama ba yang ginagawa ninyo (Are you doing the right thing)? I mean, are you crazy?” he said.

“Can you not approximate the time that you'd take to make these persons testify, question and answer? Lalo na ikaw Gordon, abogado ka (especially Gordon, you’re a lawyer).”

Gordon has yet to decide whether to run for president or seek reelection in the May 2022 elections. — RSJ, GMA News