Miriam thinks Duterte 'most dangerous' to lead nation

Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago said Friday pre-election survey leader, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, is the most dangerous man to lead the country because of his connections and his controversial statements.

Santiago, in a television interview, quickly answered "Duterte" when asked who is the most dangerous candidate.

"Right now, his most  trusted man Pastor (Apollo) Quiboloy of Davao City has already announced that if the elections don't turn out to be Duterte, he is going to personally lead a revolution," she said.

The senator said Quiboloy's statement was seditious especially coming from the leader of a religious group.

Quiboloy is the founding leader and executive pastor of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ the Name Above Every Name which claims a following of six million.

"What kind of talk is that? That is almost seditious and this is for a man of a cloth," she said.

She said the Davao mayor is different from what the people initially sees him to be.

"So masyadong malalim itong Duterte na ito, hindi kamukha noon na akala natin strict hitting lang siya na mayor at hindi siya nagkakapera," she said.

"What about the plunder charge against him by (Senator Antonio) Trillanes IV? We do not have any acceptable reason for all those accusations against him," she added.

The senator earlier accused the mayor of having undeclared bank deposits worth P211 million, which is allegedly part of the P2.4 billion that flowed into the bank accounts of Duterte and Sara from 2006 to 2015.

On Thursday, Trillanes filed plunder charges against Duterte before the Ombudsman for alleged questionable hiring of 11,246 contractual workers by the city government in 2014. 

The mayor and his camp have denied both allegations.

Santiago, in the same interview, said she does not believe peace talks with the National Democratic Front-Communist Party of the Philippines will resume once Duterte is elected president. 

"I don’t think so. You cannot tie communism, which is an ideology, down to words on paper. Nobody is going to pay attention to those words, they will act on the basis of their own ideology which is that government is bad and that government should as much as possible be given directly to the citizenry. Iba ang pananaw nila sa ating demokrasya," she said. — APG, GMA News