After slugging sheriff, mayor's ire smacks Davao court

Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte's fury over a violent demolition of houses in her city apparently did not end with the punching of a court sheriff on Friday as it may have "spilled over" to the entire local judiciary. Duterte, who succeeded her father Rodrigo Duterte as the local chief executive, has decided to terminate all the assistance the local government is extending to the Davao City Hall of Justice. The mayor was quoted in a SunStar Davao report as saying she arrived at the decision because of court sheriff Abe Andres' refusal to heed her request to push back a scheduled demolition operation by two hours, until she arrived at the site on Friday. Obviously frustrated by the violence that had erupted at the demolition site while she was not around, Duterte summoned Andres and landed at least four jabs in the court sheriff's face and head – in full view of the media. Andres had said he would not be filing charges against Duterte, but maintained he was merely doing his "ministerial job" of serving the demolition order. The order was issued by Judge Manuel Carpio of the Regional Trial Court Branch 16, who is a relative of Duterte's husband. Duterte refused to give a ballpark figure as to how much assistance her office is giving to the local court. But among the things being provided by the Davao government to the local court are gasoline allowances and job order employees, the SunStar report said. The punching incident has already spurred a slew of debate on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter – some lauded the mayor for her action, while others criticized her action as unbecoming of a public official. [See related story: The punch heard around the (social media) world] Investigations Both the Department of Interior and Local Government and the Commission on Human Rights will be starting separate investigations on the incident to determine if there was an abuse of power and human rights violation. [See related story: Sara Duterte could lose her job due to mauling incident -DILG] The Sheriff Confederation of the Philippines has already condemned Duterte's actions and threw support to Andres, saying it would be willing to assist him in case he changes his mind and decides to file charges against the mayor. "Mali [ang ginawa ni Duterte] kasi the sheriff is only implementing a court decision," said Cecil Bañez, auditor of the SCP, in a report on GMA News TV Live's Balitanghali Quezon City court sheriff Carol Bulacan, meanwhile, reiterated that the job of a sheriff was purely ministerial. "Ang sheriff trabaho lang minsiteriial hindi porket handed ka ng writ you can act what you want," she said. Relief ops Meanwhile, despite the punching incident on Friday, Duterte resumed with her duties on Saturday and met with officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways, including Sec. Rogelio Singson, to draw up plans on how to prevent floods from ravaging the city in the future. In a separate report on Balitanghali by Bernadette Reyes, Singson – during an inspection of the bridges in the city – said he discovered that the river beneath the Matina Bridge had already gone narrower and could be the culprit for the flooding in the area. Singson said rocks and agricultural wastes have caused the width of the river to shrink from 26 meters to just around 15 meters. In a interview on GMA News TV's State of the Nation with Jessica Soho on Friday night, Duterte said while there are dikes around the area, these do not cover the entire river. "Ito pong Matina-Pangi River ay ine-expect po na mag-o-overflow. Meron pong mga area diyan dati na binabaha talaga. So merong portions na may flood control projects but hindi po yung kabuuan ng river ang merong dike," she said. Meanwhile, Duterte has already kept mum on the punching incident upon the advise of her lawyers and her father, Rodrigo. However, she said she was "open to the possibility" of personally speaking with Andres and possibly giving her apologies for the incident "at the right time." — LBG, GMA News