Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio joins her father, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, at the commemoration of the 123rd Anniversary of the martyrdom of Dr. Jose Rizal at the Rizal Park in Davao City on Dec. 30, 2019. Karl Norman Alonzo, Presidential Photo
MANILA - Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio disowned Friday a social media post that pushed for federalism and insinuated that corruption among local governments was derailing efforts to curb the coronavirus pandemic.
President Rodrigo Duterte's daughter said "everything" in the post of Facebook page Duterte Guardians "was never mine — from the misspelled 'Sarah' to the glaring grammatical errors to the ridiculous syntax or to the whole idea of federalism."
The post falsely quoted Duterte-Carpio as having said that her father wanted a federal form of government to prevent problems with disaster response and that public would "see your LGUs buying new cars and properties" after the COVID-19 crisis.
The mayor earlier rejected federalism, saying it could spell trouble for areas long held by political clans.
Duterte-Carpio said those who shared the post on her supposed support for federalism should be "ashamed of themselves for agreeing to become propagators of fake information apparently manufactured to peddle an agenda."
“Any form of misinformation, any attempt to fool the public, any move to use me or any other person to push an agenda is a painful counterproductive measure that would only worsen the situation as it would never help the Duterte government win over the deadly virus," she said in a statement.
Duterte Guardians has some 260,000 Facebook followers.
Purveyors of COVID-19 misinformation could face fines and possible jail time, the PNP said last week. The National Bureau of Investigation has also summoned several online users for allegedly spreading fake news.
COVID Sara Duterte Carpio, fake news, Duterte Guardians, misinformation, federalism, politics