Paolo Duterte to France Castro: Don't be onion-skinned

Davao City Representative Paolo Duterte said Wednesday House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro should not be onion-skinned over the comments made by his father, former President Rodrigo Duterte.

The younger Duterte issued the statement after Castro filed a grave threat complaint against the former president over his remarks in a television interview tagging the ACT Teachers party-list representative as a communist that he wants to kill.

“We all have the right to file a complaint against anyone in court. But public servants should not be onion-skinned and should not make use of this right as a tool to silence critics. The former president has received much harsher and humiliating criticisms in the past but never filed a case against anyone,” the Davao lawmaker said.

“As public servants, we all are under scrutiny by the Filipino people. If the former president has said something that threatened her, then maybe she should come out clean. Di 'yung nagtatago tayo sa likod ng so-called right na ito. Tigilan na lang natin ang kadramahan at pagpapa-media,” he added.

(We should not hide under these supposed rights. Let’s drop the drama and making a scene.)

In response, Castro stressed that the camp of the former president should face charges squarely rather than put the blame on others.

“Bakit parang ako pa ang may kasalanan, samantalang buhay ko ang pinagbantaan at muling ni-redtag? I filed a grave threats case against former President Rodrigo Duterte because I am protecting myself, my family, and my colleagues. It is far different from criticisms and should not be tolerated because it fosters the state of impunity,” she said in a separate statement.

(Why is it as if I am the one at fault when it is my life which is being threatened here?)

“Besides, the onion skin doctrine even in libel cases does not give license to anyone to issue death threats. Legitimate criticism of public officials is valid but criticism is different from death threat. What Duterte did was not criticism, but threats. They used to say that people should file charges if they feel aggrieved by them, but why are they attacking the victim now?” Castro added.—AOL, GMA Integrated News