On Mayor Sara Duterte punching the Sheriff. Is this right?

Image courtesy of ABS CBN

Punching Incident

Mayor Sara Z. Duterte punched a court sheriff Friday morning for ordering the demolition of shanties in Barangay Kapitan Tomas Monteverde Sr. Suliman, Agdao district despite a plea from her to wait for two hours because she needs to be there before any demolition work starts.

This footage from ANC showed Mayor Duterte gesturing to Andres to come closer before punching him repeatedly in the face. No words were exchanged between them.

“After being told that the court sheriff who insisted that the demolition commence even without the mayor, she called for the court sheriff and punched him at least four times in the face with her right hand while holding the sheriff’s collar with her left. She wanted to punch the sheriff more, but the men behind her, including City Councilor Tomas Monteverde, held her back. What followed was a lady mayor trying her best to break free from the men’s hold on her, saying, “Ayaw, ayaw! (Don’t).”

Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo on Friday said Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio could be removed from her post if it could be proven that she abused her powers when she mauled a city court sheriff.

What I think

I don’t know about you but the punching is not justified. She just went straight and punched this sheriff without talking to him first. No matter what people say to defend Mayor Duterte…what she did is wrong…The sheriff was not violating a law or caught in the act of a crime. @raggster thinks the “people empathize too much with the Mayor. They forget that assault is a crime. Enforcing a court order is not.”

There is possible violation of RA 6713 or the Code of Conduct &Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees. Last I know, the law that applies to public servants is for the whole Philippines. Why should I ( a non-resident of Davao) not comment on the actions of the Mayor?

A public official swears to follow the law of the land. If you are public official and you break law, you lose moral authority to govern. Granted she does good things does it make her above the law? She is a lawyer too. A lawyer takes the oath to uphold the law and respect judicial processes. @chinocracy agrees with “..the one who said, that when Duterte punched the sheriff, she punched the Philippine judicial system.”

Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo said the sanction will depend on the findings of a team that will investigate the incident.

Let us see what actions DILG will take. Robredo said a “motu proprio” investigation would be carried out Monday to determine the culpability of the mayor during a demolition operation. Like @nerveending, I believe that “the last thing we want to do is to make this a precedent, so other wildly popular LGU officials can get away with things.”

Mixed reactions in Twitter if Mayor Duterte is justified in punching the Sheriff. Most believe it is very wrong.