Awkward moment for Marcos

Senator Bongbong Marcos INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE

A mix-up in schedules led to an awkward moment at a gathering of the Vice Mayors League of the Philippines (VMLP) in Manila on Tuesday night.

The Liberal Party candidates led by standard bearer Mar Roxas and running mate Leni Robredo were originally scheduled to speak before the vice mayors at the Manila Diamond Hotel. The LP team was apparently unable to make it, and the last minute guest speaker was Sen. Bongbong Marcos, another vice presidential candidate.

The LP had nonetheless asked Siquijor vice governor Dingdong Avanzado to speak in their behalf. When Avanzado read the last part of his speech which pitched for the Roxas-Robredo tandem, an awkward hush swept the audience that looked with some embarrassment towards the direction of Marcos, their guest of honor for the night, who was seated at a table right in front of the stage and across the speaker’s podium.

But Marcos managed to quickly dispel the awkward moment with a “gatecrashing” joke.

Marcos took the dais, humorously telling the gathering of vice mayors and vice governors in Filipino, “I am grateful that you allowed me to gatecrash your meeting.  I was thinking maybe it would be okay for me to join and speak before you because I will soon be a vice anyway.”

The vice president hopeful was invited by the VLMP national president, Manila Vice Mayor Isko Moreno, a senatorial candidate.

In his brief speech, Marcos vowed to work for the “equal partnership” of the local and national governments in making policies and programs for the development of towns, cities, and provinces.

“There is no way to overstate the importance of local government.  There is no way to deny the fact that if there is no local government, public service will not be felt.  That no matter how good a national government program is, if the local government does not make it work and strive to deliver, it will not be felt by the people,” he said.

Marcos, who chairs the Senate committee on local governments, said he has been pushing for a larger internal revenue allotment (IRA) share for local units. “The local communities must be strong, otherwise, the national community cannot be strong,” the vice presidential candidate added.

According to the VLMP national executive board secretariat the LP, including Roxas and his running mate Leni Robredo, was supposedly scheduled to speak on Tuesday night.