FILE PHOTO: Then-presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and then-vice presidential candidate Sara Duterte. INQUIRER FILES
TACLOBAN CITY — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte will visit Leyte on Wednesday and Thursday for a series of events.
The country’s top executives were expected to attend the switch-on ceremony of the aesthetic lighting and sound project at the San Juanico Bridge that connects Leyte and Samar Islands on Wednesday, October 19.
READ: Lights and sounds project to make San Juanico Bridge a night-time charm
The main program will be held in Samar.
The following day, October 20, the President will be the guest of honor and speaker for this year’s 78th Leyte Gulf Landings anniversary, to be held at the MacArthur Landing National Park in Palo, Leyte.
On that same day, the President and Vice President will both attend the 75th Charter Day celebration of Ormoc City, also in Leyte.
The visit of Marcos to Leyte, the home province of his mother Imelda, will be his first since he was elected as President during the May 9 elections.
Both Marcos and Duterte won overwhelmingly in Eastern Visayas.
Duterte, since assuming the Vice President post, had visited Northern Samar and Southern Leyte, the home province of his father, former president Rodrigo Duterte.
The P80 million worth San Juanico aesthetic lighting and the sound project was funded by the Department of Tourism through its attached agency, the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA).
The said project at the iconic bridge, which was constructed during the administration of the President’s father, was an initiative of the Samar provincial government.
Samar Gov. Sharee Ann Tan said the bridge has “colorful lights and sounds.”
The San Juanico Bridge aesthetic lighting project is the first of its kind in the country.
Last month, the bridge shone a purple color to honor the late Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom. Purple is associated with royalties.
READ: San Juanico Bridge turns purple to honor Queen Elizabeth II
Meanwhile, several foreign dignitaries will also attend this year’s Leyte Gulf Landings anniversary.
Among them are Ambassadors Mary Kay Carlson of the United States, Laure Beaufils of the United Kingdom, and Col. Akiba Kazuiko, defense attaché of the Japanese Embassy.
Leyte Gov. Carlos Jericho Petilla will lead the local officials during the historic event, wherein it will honor 33 living Filipino World War II veterans.