Sara the only Duterte to join Marcos in Davao events

ATTENDANCE President Marcos arrives on Sunday evening at the “Bagong Pilipinas” kick-off rally launching his administration’s governance brand. Vice President Sara Duterte (above, left) had arrived earlier and joined the huge crowd before flying to her hometown of Davao City to join a smaller gathering there against Charter change. —PHOTOS BY GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

A week after former President Rodrigo Duterte called him a drug addict who might meet the same fate as his late father, President Marcos “happily” set foot in the Dutertes’ stronghold in Mindanao to launch projects for Davao City’s benefit.

Among the Dutertes, only Vice President Sara Duterte was present to welcome the Chief Executive to her home city, as she attended three of his four engagements, along with other members of the Cabinet.

Conspicuously absent were her brothers, Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte, who demanded Mr. Marcos’ resignation last week over his supposed laziness and lack of compassion, and Davao Rep. Paolo Duterte.

The family’s patriarch and Mr. Marcos’ predecessor was also nowhere in sight.

‘Happy memories’

During the Department of Agrarian Reform’s (DAR) distribution of e-titles to land reform beneficiaries in the Davao region, Mr. Marcos said he was “happy at the chance to visit Davao City again.”

“Davaoeños gifted me and my family a lot of happy memories in the past years. I also forged many lifelong friendships here, and the love of Davao and its people cannot be erased in my heart,” the President said during a speech at the Rizal Memorial College Gym.

It was Mr. Marcos’ first visit to Davao City since a public feud broke out between him and members of the Duterte family over politics, particularly the push for amendments to the 1987 Constitution and the International Criminal Court’s investigation on drug killings during the Duterte administration.

On Jan. 28, the Dutertes attended a rally in their home city to counter a Malacañang-led event to launch the administration’s Bagong Pilipinas governance branding.

At the Davao rally, the former president alleged that Mr. Marcos was a drug addict, adding that he might go the way of his namesake father, the ousted dictator, if he insisted on Charter change.

Prior commitments

His son, the Davao mayor, also grabbed headlines when he asked Mr. Marcos to resign from his post at the same event.

Sebastian had been invited to Wednesday’s events, according to organizers, including the inauguration of the Davao City Bulk Water Supply Project, Mr. Marcos’ first event of the day. (See related story on this page.)

“He had prior commitments and we have to respect that,” said Mae Che Capili, external relations officer of the Apo Agua Infrastructura Inc.

Although the young chief executive was absent, Mr. Marcos was accompanied by the Vice President and several other Cabinet officials.

In the morning, the President attended the launch of the city’s new water project and the DAR’s distribution of e-titles to more than 2,600 land reform beneficiaries.

At noon, he was at the Department of Transportation’s anniversary celebration and ceremonial signing of civil works contracts for the Davao Public Transport Modernization Project.

In the afternoon, Mr. Marcos presided over a situation briefing on the flooding in the Davao region.

Introduced as guest

Except for the inauguration of the Davao water supply project, the Vice President was present in all events where she introduced Mr. Marcos as the guest of honor and keynote speaker.

She was also seen seated beside the President during the situation briefing given by department secretaries and local chief executives on the floods.

READ: Marcos laughs off drug claims: I won’t even dignify the question

The other Cabinet members who joined the President in Davao City were special assistant to the President Anton Lagdameo Jr., Environment Secretary Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga, Agrarian Reform Secretary Conrado Estrella III;

Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan, Social Welfare Secretary Rex Gatchalian, Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos and Presidential Communications Office Secretary Cheloy Velicaria-Garafil.

At the signing of the civil works contracts for the Davao transport project, Mr. Marcos acknowledged that the project was “first envisioned in the time when it was under the auspices” of the Vice President when she was still Davao mayor.

The President said the presence of his Cabinet members was intended to show the government’s “whole of society, whole of government, whole of nation approach” in agrarian reform and other issues.