The controversy over the president’s grand-daughter, Isabelle Duterte, using the Malacañan as a backdrop for a photoshoot has sparked a very public family rift.
Isabelle Duterte’s father Paolo, the Vice Mayor of Davao City, took to Facebook today (Friday, December 22) to give her a piece of his mind.
He wrote: “I won’t keep quiet after that person pimped you twice! And if your mom and stepdad don’t care about you, I’m not like them! Not because I’m a Duterte but because I am a father!!! Change your last name if you want to! You don’t know how to respect! You are a disgrace.
“Go to school first so your brain won’t be empty. You no longer know how to listen because you’re supposedly popular? Popular on what Belle? Popular on disrespecting your father??! Just wait for my death so you will be free from me! Pray for it, woman.”
His decision to make the family spat public was apparently calculated as the only way to make his daughter listen. He said: “I know all of us will be humiliated because of this post. But this is what you want! Let’s talk here because you’re a supposed millennial. You only listen to your number of likes.”
At the time of writing, his post has 8,600 reactions, and about 4,500 shares.
He continued: “Well, I don’t care if I have a position or I will be humiliated, you are my daughter! I don’t care of other people if this is the only way you will learn from your actions.”
Attached to the angry rant are two screenshots of tweets from Isabelle’s Twitter account. These can’t be fully verified, as her account is private.
The first tweet was about a powerful, but unnamed, member of the Duterte family who beat up a child. It reads: “Even if you have a position in the city, you can’t beat up a person! Even if you have power, you can’t hurt another person!!! You are hurting a human being!!! Not just human being, but a child!!! Even if you have a name, you can’t do things like that!!! Even if you’re a Duterte, that is not acceptable.”
The second tweet was less cryptic, and read: “My dad fucks up my christmas every year. What a time to be alive.”
The outraged father’s post ends on a PS, saying: “FIX YOUR FUCKING LIFE FIRST before i will stop “fucking up” your christmas every year.”
For a comprehensive summary of the Malacañang photoshoot controversy, read this report by the UK’s Daily Telegraph.