DAVAO CITY – Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte said in a text message to Inquirer on Saturday that her advice to her husband and brother regarding Senate hearings remained the same: “I will still advise them to respect government invitations.”

Last Thursday, she spoke to reporters after a Mass to commemorate the Roxas Night Market bombing here. She told the reporters that he had advised her husband, Manases Carpio, and brother Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte to attend the Senate hearings on the Bureau of Customs smuggling controversy if they would be invited.

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She said she did not see anything wrong about her husband and brother attending the Senate hearings. But she said they should wait for an invitation before going there.

“Actually, they were willing if invited,” the mayor said.

She added that by testifying they could shed light on their alleged involvement in the so-called Davao Group.

Carpio earlier denied any involvement in smuggling and even called Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV “a desperate rumormonger who happens to be a senator.”

He said that, as a lawyer, he represented clients who had transactions at the Bureau of Customs, but this did not mean he was into smuggling.

“It is my job as a lawyer to appear before government agencies for and on behalf of my principals,” he said in a statement.

Vice Mayor Duterte remained mum, however. Earlier, he said he would not dignify Trillanes by answering his accusations. /atm

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