Baste advises dad’s girlfriends to stop squabble

MANILA, Philippines — With talks about a quarrel between women linked to former president Rodrigo Duterte, Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte said the ladies should stop the drama.

“All of these fine ladies touched the life and heart of my father. No one is above or below the other, including my mother. It is what it is,” the mayor, more popularly known as Baste, said on social media.

The advice came after Veronica Duterte, the former president’s daughter with partner Honeylet, mentioned in one of her social media post that a woman who formerly worked or has been associated with her father has been trying to act as his partner to gain access to the facility where Duterte is detained.

Veronica said she will not tolerate that behavior and dared the woman to “come back to the Philippines so that we can exchange words.”

While the youngest of the former president’s children is in fight mode, the mayor wants the drama to end.

“So, to any camp: If you don’t stop, it will reveal more of who you are rather than who he (former president) is. Behind every man, is a woman who believed in him before he believed in himself,” the mayor said in the post.

Baste called his father the “true hokage” after learning of the squabble.

“He is the true hokage. Even in detention his women are fighting over him,” the post also read.

The term hokage referred to a leader of ninjas in a Japanese anime series but has become a colloquial term among Filipino millennials for describing a man who is skillful or excellent at gaining the attention of women.

The former president has repeatedly said in the past that there are four women in his life, his former wife, his common-law wife, and two more girlfriends.