Palace to Sara Duterte: Respond with evidence, stop using fallacies

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Saturday called on Vice President Sara Duterte to learn how to respond to accusations using evidence, instead of relying on ‘red herring’ and ‘ad hominem’ fallacies.

Palace press officer Claire Castro made the call after Duterte earlier denied accusations of receiving money from dismissed policeman Rodulfo Gracioso Jr., former security officer of former House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco.

READ: Sara Duterte denies receiving money from Velasco’s ex-aide

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Instead of providing evidence, Duterte simply attributed the allegations to the current administration’s alleged despair to remove her.

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The vice president accused President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of being “desperate” to bring her down, and that the chief executive is reporterly pushing for Charter Change to prevent the 2028 elections.

“The vice president should be taught to respond with evidence to those who accuse her before teaching others,” said Castro in a Viber message to reporters.

“She should learn the definition of red herring and ad hominem fallacies so that she can know her mistakes in arguing,” she noted.

“We will repeat it again and again to impress it on our minds… She needs to level up her defending skills so she can appear credible, if only for once,” she added.

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Red herring is an informal logical fallacy that refers to a situation when someone identifies a fact, an idea, or subject that takes people’s attention away from the actual point.

Ad hominem, on the other hand, is marked by an instance when someone goes after an opponent’s character, instead of answering or addressing the arguments made.

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According to the National Bureau of Investigation, Duterte allegedly received more than P2 billion from Gracioso. /apl