‘Davao mayor slugs sheriff’ story goes international

The incident involving Davao City mayor Sara Duterte throwing punches at a court sheriff breaks into international news after it was reported on several foreign media platforms, like the British Broadcasting Company (BBC), Al Jazeera, and Gawker.com. In an online article posted on Saturday, titled “Philippine mayor filmed punching sheriff in Davao City," the BBC reported Duterte's attack on Abe Andres, sheriff of the Regional Trial Court Branch 16 in Davao. “The TV footage showed Duterte calmly beckoning the sheriff towards her before punching him twice in the face, before he was restrained by the mayor’s aides," the BBC report said. The article has so far been shared on social networking sites 253 times as of posting time. The incident was also reported by Al Jazeera, an independent media company based in Qatar. In his video report, Al Jazeera’s Gerald Tan explained how Andres became the “target of Duterte’s rage" when he refused to heed a request to push back demolition operations by two hours so she could personally supervise it and prevent a scuffle from erupting. Duterte-Carpio has already filed for an eight-day leave of absence effective July 4 while the Department of Interior and Local Government and the Commission on Human Rights separately investigate the incident. Taking over while she is away is Duterte-Carpio’s father, former Davao City mayor and incumbent vice mayor Rodrigo Duterte, whose past leadership as mayor was marked by a number of extra-judicial killings supposedly carried out by the so-called “Davao Death Squad." “Sara may not have the law on her side but appears to have won the support of those she represents," Al Jazeera's Tan ended. Meanwhile, New York-based gossip website Gawker.com also reported the incident and described how Duterte “went bam-bam-bam with her first." As of posting time, Duterte’s story ranked as the site’s third most popular story. “It’s not very common to see politicians fight (literally) for the poor," Gawker.com said in an article posted July 2 and as of this posting has been viewed almost 11,000 times and shared on Facebook by 186 users. The online article, titled “Watch This Lady Mayor Punch Some Sheriff Dude", also tried finding a connection between the punching incident and American politics. “What do you think about it? Do you think American politics needs more or less punching?" the article concluded. On the comments section of the article about Inday Sara slugging the sheriff, user “rebeccarose" said it was "beautiful... COTD (Catch Of The Day) contender." User “kimbersays", meanwhile, described the incident as “sublime." While user “danikilla" gushed, “This woman is a saint!" But user “Sheldon J. Plankton" asked tongue-in-cheek, “What about the deputy?" — MRT/KBK, GMA News