PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. is not interested in dealing with the tirades of former president Rodrigo Duterte who called him a “cry baby” supposedly for his leaning towards the United States.

“You know, to be a crybaby, you have to cry. Did you see me cry? I don’t want to pay attention to that. I really don’t. That’s means absolutely nothing to me,” President Marcos told reporters on Friday afternoon (local time) in Washington, DC.

The President said that his predecessor, a highly experienced lawyer, should know that “ad hominem attacks” have no place in high level discussions such as the trilateral summit between the Philippines, the US and Japan. Ad hominem attacks refer to personal assaults.

“Sasabihin na, pangit ka. O sige, ‘di pangit ako, so what? Walang lugar ‘yang mga ano – ‘yung mga personal na ad hominem attacks kung tawagin sa batas,” the chief executive added.

Asked to react on Duterte’s statement that they might become political enemies following the decision to suspend Davao del Norte Governor Edwin Jubahib, President Marcos said he does not consider the former president as political adversary.

“I don’t consider him a political enemy. It takes two to tango. I don’t consider him a political enemy,” Marcos said.

The chief executive explained that he is more than willing to discuss with Duterte the legal basis of Jubahib’s suspension, saying that some of the cases against the suspended governor were already filed before he assumed office.

Marcos also expressed confidence about the decision to suspend Jubahib.

“I’ll send him all of the court records and all of the discussions about that. Matagal na yan. Some of these cases were filed before I took office. And so it’s taking close to two years because it went through the process. So I’m confident, let anybody investigate,” Marcos said, referring to Duterte.

“So, actually I only learned about the cases about a year ago. I did not know that such a case existed. I learned about it a year ago as part of my briefer, my daily briefer. So I’m very sure we did all of, we went through, all of the checks and balances. We went through all the procedures, the proper procedures, before we came to the decision, before the DILG came to the decision of imposing a suspension,” he added.

The Office of the President recently ordered the 60-day suspension of Jubahib, which stemmed from a complaint dated November 24, 2022 filed by Board Member Orly Amit for grave abuse of authority and oppression in connection with last year’s barangay elections. PCO

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