MikeLigalig.com

Duterte exposes Poe’s inexperience

Senator Grace Poe lacks the experience and the political will to protect the country’s national sovereignty from foreign threats, this point was illustrated by Presidential bet Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte during the second presidential debates on Sunday (March 20) at the University of the Philippines (UP) Cebu campus.

During the second round of the debate, each candidate was allowed to field one question directed to a fellow contender. For his part, Duterte was designated to ask Senator Grace Poe a question.

“If elected as president, what would be the first steps that you would do if you are woken up in the middle of the night by a call informing you that the Chinese bombed two of our coast guard ships in Spratlys island?” Duterte asked.

Poe gave indirect responses to Duterte’s question. Among the answers she gave were to modernize the Philippine military and to cooperate with other ASEAN countries in engaging China to follow a code of conduct on the West Philippine Sea.

Notwithstanding Poe’s vague response, Duterte pressed on his question. “What would be the first three steps that you would do if you hear about the report?”

Poe answered that the first thing she would do is to get up from her bed. This elicited laughter from the audience. The senator also said that she will call several government agencies and meet with them to know what best course of action is needed.

In the end, Poe failed to put forward concrete solutions to Duterte's question.

The tough-talking mayor earlier stressed that if elected, he will conduct bilateral talks with the government of China to assert the Philippines’ territorial rights.

“I will personally talk to China. I will not move an inch. I will tell them that, ‘you are occupying areas which now belong to the Republic of the Philippines. I will also remind them of the last line of our national anthem, ‘ang mamatay nang dahil sayo’,” Duterte said.

Linkback: https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=82089.0