Villarin: Sara Duterte putting herself in spotlight over HNP bets

Akbayan party-list Representative Tom Villarin on Wednesday called out Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte for supposedly stealing the spotlight from the senatorial candidates under her Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) alliance.

In a message to GMA News Online, the opposition lawmaker said the presidential daughter is "overdoing" her role as HNP's campaign manager.

"She is projecting more herself than her senatorial bets. It’s unfair to her slate who wants to have the needed media exposure but being crowded out by their campaign manager," Villarin said.

"She is also selling short the electorate who are entitled to know about who the candidates are," he added.

Duterte has consistently been coming to the rescue of her candidates, especially when they are hit with allegations about their capacity to lead and the integrity of their character.

Recently, she defended senatorial bet Imee Marcos against allegations of lying about her educational background by saying that "everybody lies" and that honesty is not an issue in the elections.

She also questioned Vice President Leni Robredo's honesty and moral ascendancy after the later commented that dishonest persons should not run for public office.

Aside from this, the mayor also said she alone is ready to debate with all eight candidates from the "Otso Diretso" slate after their petition for the Commission on Elections to facilitate a public debate among senatorial bets was denied.

"Her challenge to personally debate all the Otso Diretso bets, her media-hogging, incessant tirades against the opposition senatorial bets, among others, betrays her intent—that of being a candidate for a higher post in 2022," Villarin said.

"She unwittingly is sabotaging the chances of winning of her HNP senatorial slate," he added. — BM, GMA News