Marinduque Representative Lord Allan Velasco and his wife, Wen, were able to successfully gather prominent supporters of President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday at the Harbor Garden Tent of Sofitel.
Among the guests were Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte and the other Hugpong ng Pagbabago top dogs Gov. Claude Bautista of Davao Occidental, Gov. Anthony del Rosario, and Gov. Tyrone Uy of Compostela Valley.
The event, called Salu-salo kasama ang Pangulo, was a post-birthday celebration for the President.
But instead of exclusively owning the spotlight, the President made the gathering also a celebration for former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. To the cheering crowd, President Rody sang a happy birthday song to Arroyo.
Spotted during the dinner were former First Lady Imelda Marcos and daughter Imee, Tingting Cojuangco, Davao del Norte Representative Antonio Floirendo, TUCP Representative Raymond Mendoza, and business tycoon Ramon S. Ang.
The Tapang at Malasakit Alliance for the Philippines was represented by lawyer Raul Nadela and Taguig City Mayor Lani Cayetano, who sat beside Mayor Sara at the Presidential Table.
I also saw a number of Cabinet Officials, including Foreign Affairs Sec. Alan Peter Cayetano, Chief Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo, Special Assistant to the President Christopher Bong Go, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon, Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, and Presidential Spokersperson Harry Roque.
People are asking me about the supposed encounter between Mayor Sara and Speaker Bebot Alvarez. Yes, there was. If you have seen the video, you can draw conclusions from there. I will leave the juicy details drip somewhere in your imagination.
On the sidelines, just before the dinner ended, Mayor Sara had a time to talk to the visitors and she thanked them for their support to the President and his administration.
Meanwhile, during his speech, the President talked about the reopening of the stalled peace talks between the Philippine Government Peace Panel and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines.
The President presented three conditions: bilateral ceasefire; no coalition in government with them; no extortion or collection of so-called revolutionary taxes; and, rebel confinement within their camps.
The President also wants the peace negotiations to be conducted in the Philippines. He was apparently calling the shots.
But from his voice, one could sense the President’s exasperation. But it was encouraging, at the same time, that he remains hopeful that the years of revolution by the Maoist rebels is something that can be ended peacefully through the talks. He is not giving up. Not yet.
Let’s take note, however, that the announcement of renewed peace negotiations happened only a few days after the New People’s Army rebels burned down construction equipment in three Davao City villages and in Talaingod in Davao del Norte.
Mayor Sara was absolutely livid. The statement she released in reaction to the incident gathered almost 6k reactions online and almost the same number of shares.
Once again, the Mayor called the NPAs terrorists that “deserves our collective rejection and condemnation”, their actions “downright cowardly.”
Just as how she did not mince words in the past, the feisty Mayor Inday said the “NPA’s revolution is one designed to undermine our democracy and development through its brand of egregious violence and extremism.”
Many agreed with her.
The comments section of the post is simmering with anger and just plain lost of trust to the NDF and the NPA — something that is both unfortunate and sad.
They talked about how the incident snagged not only the construction of the roads, but also the development of the city and the people, particularly the poor.
Mayor Sara said the “projects could change the lives of the people for the better.”
In reaction, one Albert Siatong said, unedited: “I strongly suggest to annihilate all CPP-NPA elements, they are an economic saboteurs, detractors for prosperity, thus such atrocities they created is an open challenge to the government with no respect to human dignity, progress and development.. their rotten unpopular ideology is nothing but to derail government effort to have a lasting peace, a clear manifestation that their objective is to have a coalition government, the last resort is to topple the government.. Let us give these terrorists a good fight if their death wish is creating wreak havoc and crash them out to the death.. our government should now act decisively to eradicate all enemy of the state so that this admin can move forward for a real change and prosperity.”
Told you. Unfortunate. Sad. That’s what I was talking about.
