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Palace: Duterte not serious about allegation vs Mar

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Dharel Placido, ABS-CBN News

<h3>Roxas says &#x27;let it go&#x27; - ally</h3><div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2018/news/12/19/20181219-duterte-roxas.jpg?ext=.jpg"/><figcaption>President Rodrigo Duterte and former Interior secretary Mar Roxas. File</figcaption></figure></div>MANILA - Malacañang on Wednesday said President Rodrigo Duterte was not serious when he alleged that former Interior secretary Mar Roxas was behind the <a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/05/13/18/daanbantayan-mayor-survives-ambush">failed attempt</a> on the life of Daanbantayan, Cebu Mayor Vicente Loot.Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Duterte merely made an “expression of displeasure said in jest” about Loot’s alleged involvement in the drug trade.Duterte made this allegation against Roxas as he denied hand on the ambush.“Where were the pushers then? They only came out during my time because I told the police, “Open the records because I want to see.” Now look. How many generals were involved? Even Loot and Garbo. Loot has been ambushed twice but he just can’t be killed,” Duterte said in a speech in Davao City on Tuesday.“I wasn’t the one who ordered for his ambush. It was Roxas. Roxas ordered his ambush, not me. Because he was told, ‘Your Garbo, your senior police aide is involved in drugs.’ That was why Roxas was irked. He said, ‘Patayin na lang ninyo para hindi tayo mapahiya.’”Loot is a retired police general and among politicians who President Duterte had tagged as one of the alleged &quot;narco-generals&quot; or police officials involved in the narcotics trade. Duterte had linked Loot, retired general Marcelo Garbo, and other generals to Roxas, a key figure in the Aquino administration who lost in the 2016 presidential race.Roxas has denied having dubious links with the generals.Speaking to ABS-CBN News, Roxas’ staunch ally, Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice, said the former Interior secretary, who will run for the Senate in 2019, has opted not to make a big deal out of the President’s statement.“Sec. Panelo has already said that it was a joke. For [former] Sec. Mar, he wants to let it go in the spirit of Christmas season,” he said.Erice added that people who know Roxas would just laugh at such an allegation, because they know it is not in his character to order the killing of an individual.He said for the “political maturity” of Filipino voters, Roxas would like more substantial issues, such as the economy, be discussed publicly.Loot survived an ambush back in May this year, but his 2 drivers, helper, and a wharf porter were injured. The mayor, his wife former Mayor Malou Loot, son Board Member Shun Simora, and other family members had just arrived from Malapascua Island and were disembarking from a pump boat when 5 armed men fired at them.

MANILA - Malacañang on Wednesday said President Rodrigo Duterte was not serious when he alleged that former Interior secretary Mar Roxas was behind the failed attempt on the life of Daanbantayan, Cebu Mayor Vicente Loot.

MANILA - Malacañang on Wednesday said President Rodrigo Duterte was not serious when he alleged that former Interior secretary Mar Roxas was behind the failed attempt on the life of Daanbantayan, Cebu Mayor Vicente Loot.

Palace: Duterte not serious about allegation vs Mar

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Palace: Duterte not serious about allegation vs Mar

Dharel Placido,

ABS-CBN News

Published December 19, 2018 03:45 PM PHT

Read More:

mar roxas

Rodrigo Duterte

Daanbantayan

Cebu

Vicente Loot

war on drugs

drugs

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