President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. PRESIDENTIAL FILE PHOTO
ILOILO CITY — For the first time since he was elected to office more than two years ago, President Duterte will visit on Wednesday (June 20) this city, which he had called “most shabulized” and “bedrock” of illegal drugs.
With top officials of the province and the city already under the ruling Partido Demokratiko Pilipino–Lakas ng Bayan, the President is scheduled to guest in three separate events in the afternoon.
At the multipurpose gym of Cabatuan town in Iloilo, the President will lead the distribution of about 3,772 Certificates of Land Ownership Award to 2,314 agrarian beneficiaries in Western Visayas covering a total area of 2,694 hectares.
He will be joined by officials of the Department of Agrarian Reform led by Secretary John Castriciones. The activity is part of the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program that was passed during the Corazon Aquino administration.
The President will also turn over farm-to-market roads and deliver a speech after a mass-oath taking of newly appointed personnel of the DAR in Western Visayas.
He will then proceed to the Iloilo Convention Center (Icon) in Iloilo City to speak before a national conference of the Philippine Councilors’ League.
This is the first time that the President will visit the city, the regional center of Western Visayas, which was previously a bailiwick of the Liberal Party.
In February, Mr. Duterte visited the wake of murdered Overseas Filipino Worker Joanna Demafelis in Sara town.
The President will then lead the formal opening of the Vista Mall, which is owned by the Villar family, his political allies, in Oton town.