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Davao City mayor and Hugpong ng Pagbabago’s chair Sara Duterte-Carpio on Saturday slammed Vice President Leni Robredo for commenting about honesty and integrity.

“Leni Robredo should avoid commenting about honesty and integrity. Her honesty has been questioned since day one of her term as Vice President,” the presidential daughter said in a statement.

“She is not called fake VP for no reason,” she added.

Carpio attacked Robredo after the vice president insisted that honesty should be an election issue, contrary to the presidential daughter's earlier statement.

Carpio said the reason why good moral character is not a requirement to run for vice president is because the country has “so many Leni Robredos in this world”.

She claimed that Robredo tried to copy her late husband, former Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo, but “failed at every turn.”

She also cited the electoral protest filed by defeated candidate Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. against Robredo.

Carpio also brought up the rumored relationship of the vice president to a married man.

“She may or may not get away with these but we all know she is not forthcoming in everything,” she said.

“And if she insists in saying that you have to be honest to run for public office, then she must say goodbye to her dreams of becoming President,” she added.

Robredo's camp, on the other hand, said that Carpio's statement was based on “fake news”.

“Thank you Mayor Sara, you just proved that honesty is not needed in public service. You are attacking using fake news,” Robredo’s spokesperson Barry Gutierrez said.

“It was proven many times that these are all fake. Read real news when you have time. You are doing all of these to avoid your candidates from debate,” he added.

Gutierrez said it was too early for the president’s daughter to campaign for 2022.

Carpio made the “honesty” statement after opposition senatorial bets accused HNP-backed candidates of dishonesty and corruption. Ella Dionisio/DMS