Team DailyPedia
PDP-Laban presidential candidate and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte made a remark about burning Singapore’s flag during a political rally in Daet, Camarines Norte on April 29, 2016 (Friday). The statement was the Mayor’s response to Singapore’s reaction towards a viral meme made and spread by supporters that make it look as if Singapore’s Prime Minister had officially endorsed Duterte for the presidency. The fake endorsement has led the Singapore government to consider legal action against the person who created the bogus quote.
Duterte’s spokesperson Peter Tiu Lavina went on on social media last May 2, 2016 to explain that the burning of the flag remark was merely a joke.
Official statement:
“As I have explained on TV and radio interviews, Duterte practices the golden rule – if you treat me well, I will treat you well as well. If you bash me, I return the favor. This is also the context about Singapore’s complaint that its Prime Minister was used in “endorsing” Duterte. It was a meme. A humorous image in social media which is an open space, meaning anyone could have made that up. How can a self-respecting country react to such trivial matter and calling for investigation? Now, it has tasted its own dose of medicine when Duterte retorted jokingly that he will burn the Singaporean flag again. It’s a tit-for-tat. Only the onion-skinned would actually be affected.”
While Lavinia explained that the threat to burn Singapore’s flag was a joke, the Davao City Mayor has already burned the flag of Singapore in the past. In an article, the Inquirer recounted that in March 1995, the then Davao Mayor led 1,000 Davao City employees in the burning of the Singapore flag and called for a boycott of Singaporean goods and investments in reaction to the execution of Filipino maid Flor Contemplacion. Contemplacion was convicted on charges of murder of another maid and a four-year-old child in Singapore.
This was not the first time that the Davao City Mayor made controversial statements that offended other countries. His recent remark about an Australian rape-slay victim garnered the attention and criticism of both the Australian and American ambassadors.
