Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Nicolas Torre III said he is done engaging with acting Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte.
After Baste failed to show up at the highly anticipated charity boxing event in Manila last Sunday, Torre announced that he would close the chapter of him paying attention to the acting mayor.
“The bully ran away. Let us close that chapter,” he stressed.
Baste had earlier stated he was willing to face Torre in a boxing match between Tuesday and Friday this week.
However, Torre is no longer interested.
“Everybody saw the big effort we put into this (charity boxing). At this point, I don’t think he’s worth responding to. Let’s just leave him in his world,” Torre said in a post-event interview.
“I don’t think there’s any logic left in what he says. Ang credibility kase, parang maloko mo ako one time—shame on you. Maloko mo ako dalawang beses—shame on me.”
Despite his position as the country’s top cop, Torre explained that he accepted Baste’s challenge to demonstrate to the youth the importance of standing up to bullies.
“I’ve been bullied many times by that guy,” Torre said, referring to Baste.
In a speech during a flag-raising ceremony and again at a press briefing on Monday, July 28, Torre recounted that the first incident occurred while he was regional director of the Police Regional Office 11—when Baste allegedly threatened to slap him.
Torre said it began when he pushed for the implementation of a three-minute police response time in Davao City, which Duterte, then serving as mayor, rejected.
He claimed the threats started even before the arrest of Kingdom of Jesus Christ leader Apollo Quiboloy in September last year.
Torre had previously dismissed several police commanders in Davao for allegedly manipulating crime data to falsely present the city as safe.
He said the bullying intensified following Quiboloy’s arrest and the transfer of former President Rodrigo Duterte to The Hague in the Netherlands.
And on the latest podcast of Baste where he mentioned about engaging Torre in a fistfight, the Chief PNP accepted the challenge.
“As your Chief PNP, I will not allow any of us to be bullied just like that by anybody regardless of the status, especially the name-calling,” said Torre, referring to Baste’s statement calling him a monkey.
“I will not allow anybody to insult us, we will not tolerate that and it is our obligation to defend ourselves, to defend ourselves as Filipinos. We are policemen and we swore on that oath that we will not back down from anybody who would trample on our dignity,” he added.
Torre earlier said that one of the reasons he accepted the fistfight challenge is to take it as an opportunity to raise funds for the typhoon victims.
The charity boxing match, although there was no slugfest that happened between the two, generated over P20 million in donations and ticket sales.
But for Torre, there is also an underlying message that he wants to convey to the Filipino people, particularly the younger ones.
“Let us show that we stand up to the bully,” said Torre. (Aaron Recuenco)
