Peter Tiu Laviña, one of the campaign organizers of President Duterte during the 2016 presidential campaign, posted an open letter on Facebook addressed to the president regarding his actions in relation to Davao City mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio.
In the open letter posted on Nov. 15, 2021, Laviña provided an unsolicited advice to the president to “take a deep breath, shut his ears, eye the bigger picture and listen to his heart. This is not the time to display Tapang, the situation calls for Malasakit.”
Laviña continued, “As father of the nation, he should put a stop to this madness.
History will be unkind to a father who denies his daughter a chance to be President, ties her hands to handpick her own tandem and threatens to whip her in public by fighting her in the polls for VP [Vice President]. This is not just ugly, unwise, unfatherly, it is unpresidential, unprecedented, unforgivable! “
This comes as the president indicated that he will come in as a substitute candidate for vice president which will pit him against his own daughter, Sara. Sara, earlier, filed her certificate of candidacy for vice president under Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats.
Sara is expected to be the running mate of presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
In his letter, Laviña further adviced the president to “also stop attacking other people. Maybe he needs to be reminded about one among his favorites: ‘don’t paint others black to picture yourself white.’ Best for him is to devote his remaining months in office in winning against the pandemic, reviving the economy and making certain that the elections are conducted above board, no terrorism, no power outages, no [internet service provider] ISP shutdown, no cheating. And then retire as he has announced on Oct 2, be a mentor, spend time for family and himself. “
Moreover, Lavina added in his open letter, “What more does he [referring to President Duterte] need to prove, our people’s admiration and respect he already have?”
As of this writing, the president has yet to file his certificate of candidacy for vice president. Sec. Martin Andanar said on Nov. 13, 2021 that the president is going to file to run for vice president.