Senators react to ex-president Duterte’s ‘patayin’ remark at PDP rally

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Some senators didn’t even bat an eyelash following president Rodrigo Duterte’s remark that he would kill members of the upper chamber in order to help members of the Partido Demokratikong Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan’s (PDP-Laban) senatorial slate get into the winners’ circle.

For Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada, it’s a non-issue.

“Mapagbiro lang talaga si PRRD (PRRD really has a playful sense of humor.),” he said in a Viber message to reporters.

For Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla, Jr., he thinks that it’s just Duterte’s way of expressing himself.

“Pero hindi naman tayo natatakot sa ganyan dahil may agimat tayo (But we’re not afraid of that because we have a talisman),” Revilla, known for his role as “Pepeng Agimat”, said tongue-in-cheek.

Meanwhile, Senator Risa Hontiveros deflected this and said in a chance interview that what really needs to be eliminated or reduced were the high prices of goods.

“Unang reaksyon: Ano? Ano daw? Ano bang magiging reaksyon ng mga tao na hirap na hirap na nga sa buhay sa mga isyu na tiantalakay nina Sen Kiko at Sen Bam, tapos ang sagot ng isa dyan ay dagdag na karahasan? Talagang ewan ko lang sa kanila. Dito ako makikinig kina Sen Kiko (First reaction: What? What did they say? How will people who are already struggling in life react to the issues being discussed by Sen. Kiko and Sen. Bam, especially when the response from one of them is to add more violence? I really don’t know about them. I’ll be listening to Sen. Kiko),” she said.

Hontiveros was at the Muñoz Market in Quezon City together with Kiko Pangilinan and Bam Aquino for the duo’s senatorial campaign.

Asked for a reaction on Duterte’ statement, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said in an interview on DWIZ that it’s important to pray for peace during the election period.

“Ako ay lagi akong nananalangin na walang karahasan na mangyari sa ating bansa. Yan ang tingin kong mainam sa darating na halalan (I always pray that no violence will occur in our country. I believe that’s the best for the upcoming election),” he said.

“Talagang umiinit ang halalan eh. At hindi natin pwedeng lalo pang gatungan yung mainit nang halalan dahil ayaw natin magkaroon ng karahasan, ayaw natin na magkaroon ng di magandang pangyayari (The election is really heating up. And we can’t fan the flames of an already heated election because we don’t want any violence or undesirable incidents to occur),” he added.

Duterte made the remark about killing senators during the proclamation rally of the senatorial candidates of PDP-Laban at Club Filipino, San Juan, Manila on Thursday.

“Patayin natin ang mga senador ngayon, para mabakante (Let’s just kill the senators now to create vacancies).”

“Ngayon, marami kasi sila, ano dapat ang gawin natin? Edi patayin natin yung mga senador ngayon para mabakante (Now, since there are many of them, what should we do? Well, let’s kill the senators now so that the positions become vacant),” Duterte said.

He even mentioned: “Kung makapatay ka ng kinse na senador, pasok na tayong lahat (If we manage to kill 15 senators we can all get in).”

He also stated that some of the senators irks him, but not all.

“Talking of opportunities, the only way to do it is to pasabugin na lang natin yan (let’s just blow it up),” he added. — Dhel Nazario