MANILA, Philippines — Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio was right, the Philippines should have a song that would reflect the whole Philippines and not just the capital Manila, Malacañang said Monday.
Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo issued the reaction a day after the presidential daughter questioned the playing of the popular Hotdog song “Manila” while the Philippine contingent in the 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games emerge on the stage during the opening of the regional biennial sports meet on November 30 in the Philippine Arena in Bulacan.
In a social media post, Duterte-Carpio said that “we should be inclusive when we want to encourage our countrymen to cheer.”
“Perhaps because of the title ‘Manila’ itself, then she would be right [that] it does not represent the entire Philippines,” Panelo said in a Palace briefing.
“[T]he mayor, is right. We have to have a song that will reflect not only Manila but the entire Philippines – Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. We don’t have one,” he added.
The Palace official, however, noted the thousands of crowd at the Philippine Arena in Bulacan “liked it.”
“[I]t seems that ‘Manila’ was used because that is the most popular song in relation to the Filipinos,” he said.
“[A]pparently, the people there, the crowd there liked it, laughed it up. They were all dancing, I was also dancing, all of us,” he added.