Duterte tells supporters to cool down and respect  free speech
By ARMANDO B. FENEQUITO JR.
Presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte called on his supporters to refrain from attacking his critics online.
In a statement, Duterte reminded them the Philippines is a free country where freedom of speech is protected by the Constitution.
“We respect each others’ opinions,” he said.
“We always say that it’s OK if we disagree. And I may not agree with what you said or say, but I will defend your right to say it. That’s how it should be.”
He reechoed the statement of his spokesperson, Peter Laviña, who asked Duterte’s supporters to be civil, intelligent, decent, and compassionate when engaged in any kind of discourse.
“I would say the same,” Duterte said.
“What we can do is to concede a certain degree of understanding.” And he told them: “Relax. Everything is going well.” He described his supporters as “over-enthusiastic to the point that I can do no wrong,” he added.
Duterte’s comments came after University of the Philippines Los Baños student Stephen Villena was cyberbullied after he was accused of being disrespectful of the mayor during the question-and-answer portion of a forum last Friday.
The mayor said he himself did not feel disrespected during the forum.
“Disrespected? No. I was once a student. Gano’n talaga ang mga students (That’s how the students behave) . You don’t expect these students to be all prim and proper,” he said. “Those are the ways of the youth and I can understand.”
Duterte’s youngest son, Sebastian, also asked the public to stop cyberbullying.
“We reject and condemn cyberbullying because it is a criminal offense,” Sebastian said.
He said cyberbullying and giving death threats to the critics will not help his father’s campaign.
Villena, on the other hand, issued his statement last Sunday through his Facebook account.
He said, “to all the people who were hurt by my statements in that March 11 forum, rest assured that you have my full respect.”
Villena said he only ask the people to analyze first the full context of that said forum and hopefully come to the conclusion because he was not maligning Duterte. He said he was just asking the particular view of the candidate running for public office regarding one particular issue.
“To my mind the issue I wanted to raise with Mr. Duterte was very important to us students. It concerned education versus defense. He said in the forum that he wanted to give priority to the budget for education. So, I asked him how he planned to achieve this knowing that in various sorties and interviews he also said that he will give priority to peace and order which I surmised would require a greater budget for the police force and the military,” he said.
He said he know that Duterte can understand a student who is frank and direct like him.
“You have always been known to be frank and direct when you speak. I believe that among the candidates running for the presidency, you in particular will easily understand a student who only wanted to be frank and direct with you,” Villena said.
