Aquino offers help to Duterte during first phone call

President Benigno Aquino III says his first phone conversation with incoming Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was “pleasant.” KRISTINE ANGELI SABILLO/INQUIRER.net

President Benigno Aquino III on Friday said he had a “pleasant” first phone conversation with President-elect Rodrigo Duterte whom he congratulated.

“It was a very short conversation,” Aquino told members of the Malacañang Press Corps at a restaurant in Binondo, Manila.

Aquino managed to talk to Duterte over the phone when the President-elect’s staff visited Malacañang on Thursday.

READ: Duterte transition team meets Aquino in Malacañang

“Yung members of his staff went to the Executive Secretary (Paquito Ochoa Jr.) yesterday (Thursday). The Executive Secretary brought them to me. We shared some of our experiences for the last 6 years to them,” he said.

Duterte’s representatives then called Duterte so that he may talk to Mr. Aquino.

“We had a short conversation wherein I congratulated him, (we) asked each other how we were. And I reiterated the offer to be of assistance,” Mr. Aquino told the media.

READ: Aquino congratulates Duterte, opens communication lines

He described the conversation as “pleasant.”

Mr. Aquino said Duterte did not reject his offer of help.

He said his team was ready to assist the incoming administration on the transition and so they wouldn’t have to “reinvent the wheel.”

The President said he told incoming Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea that he hoped the Duterte administration would “build upon all of the things that (his government has) started…”

Duterte’s aide Christopher “Bong” Go on Thursday shared photos of the incoming gov’t transition team visiting Mr. Aquino.IDL/rga

President Aquino meets with Duterte transition team at Malacañang. PHOTO courtesy of Bong Go

Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa tours Duterte transition team. PHOTO courtesy of Bong Go.