MANILA, Philippines — Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte challenged Interior Secretary Juanito Victor Remulla to a hair follicle drug test after he described the congressman as "being stoned" when he claimed that the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued warrants of arrest against Sen. Bong Go and two other individuals.
He also said that Remulla should "look in the mirror" first.
Remulla on Thursday said that Duterte might have been "high" when he claimed that there was an ICC warrant against Go and two police officers whom he did not name.
"I haven’t seen.. He could have been stoned when he heard it because we haven’t seen anything like that," Remulla said.
But in a statement late Thursday night, Duterte chided Remulla, saying he could be misdirecting his aim and iwasreferring to those in Malacanang.
"If you really want to know who is "high" and who is "spaced out," the solution is quite simple. Let’s undergo a hair follicle drug test. Bring your boss along, plus his wife and child. So it’s just one round of testing and the discussion is over," Duterte said.
He also said that he might also be referring the word "sabog" to a "burst."
"Maybe bursting with power. Bursting with corruption. Bursting with arrogance. And bursting with the delusion that the people no longer know how to distinguish those who are actually working from those who are just posing for the camera," Duterte said.
In his statement, Duterte said that the administration's use of ICC was a "political weapon" used against their opponents, noting that almost every goverment agency is now beigng used "to hunt down their political rivals,"
"To all the officials who are now playing blind and deaf just to please the administration, reflect on this—if they can turn their backs on their own allies now, what more will they do to you once you are no longer useful?," Duterte said.
