IPINAALALA ng mga lider ng Kamara de Representantes kay Vice President Sara Duterte na bilang isang opisyal ng gobyerno ay nababawasan ang kanyang privacy at ang pagkuha sa kanya ng litrato habang nasa airport ay natural lamang.

Ang paalala nina Lanao del Sur Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong, Deputy Majority Leader Janette Garin, at 1RIDER Rep. Rodge Gutierrez ay bilang reaksyon sa reklamo ni VP Duterte kaugnay ng pagkuha sa kanya ng litrato sa paliparan noong siya ay paalis patungong Germany sa kasagsagan ng pananalsa ng Bagyong Carina.

“Once you enter into public service, you somehow surrender a certain degree of privacy, unfortunately. And that’s been the problem not only of one individual public official but it is actually shared by all of us,” sabi ni Adiong.

“Once you do enter into this kind of service, you automatically – deliberately or not –share your life to the public and the public will also enjoy a certain, I don’t know if it’s imaginative, a certain power over you, that whatever you do, either publicly or privately, they tend to feel that they have a right to know everything that you do,” dagdag pa niya.

Sinang-ayunan ni Garin ang pahayag ni Adiong at sinabi na ang paliparan ay isang pampublikong lugar at si VP Duterte ay isang public official.

“It’s a public place … Siyempre kilala siya, sikat sila, bakit di pupunta yan, ma’am makiki-picture naman. It’s something that is expected in a public place,” ani Garin.

“If we need to beef up security, it’s because if there are threats or we need to secure the area because we have more tourist coming into the Philippines and not because a certain individual got a photo,” wika pa niya. “These are part and parcel of the risk we face as government employees and government officials. I myself, with due courtesy to the vice president, wouldn’t blame the setup of the airport because it’s a public place.”

Sinabi ni Gutierrez na kahit ang mga pribadong indibidwal ay hindi na umaasa sa pagkakaroon ng privacy sa mga pampublikong lugar gaya ng airport.

“It’s a public place, we can’t really expect much privacy. We can’t expect privacy as private persons, paano pa kaya as public officials?” saad ni Gutierrez.