MALACAÑANG PHOTO BUREAU/Jay Morales
DAVAO CITY—Nobody knows the troubles he’s seen, President Duterte said on Saturday, citing his loss of privacy and the deafening noise he has to endure every time a tugboat brings him across Pasig River from his “Bahay Pangarap” residence to Malacañang.
“When will this end?” the country’s Chief Executive asked.
Describing the Presidential Security Group (PSG) as “a menace to me,” he lamented that “those white men” have restricted his movement. “I cannot even pee outside because they will know. They have this gadget where you can see clearly through open windows,” he said.
Becoming President was his “greatest lamentation,” Mr. Duterte said. “That’s true, I’ve lost my privacy,” he added.
Ashamed
The President also complained about the deafening noise made by the tugboat that takes him across Pasig River to Malacañang. “There’s a tugboat there. Tsug, tsug, tsug,” he said, mimicking the sound of the vessel.
“You might want to suggest to the congressmen to give me a nice boat, color white,” Duterte said, adding that he was ashamed to ask Congress himself.
It does not have to be a real yacht, he said. “Just a small ship or maybe a yacht-looking” vessel he could use in crossing the Pasig, the President said.
And those PSG members, Mr. Duterte deadpanned, always shouting something when he boards the tugboat.
“What do you shout when I enter the tugboat? What’s that word?” he asked.
Officials seated in front of him replied, “On deck.”
“Now I know, ‘on deck’ pala iyang ngyawa na iyan,(is all that racket means),” the President said, eliciting laughter from the crowd.
This wasn’t the first time that Mr. Duterte lamented his loss of privacy. In November, he described himself as a “prisoner.” The police were always shadowing him, he complained. If somebody would handcuff him, he’d be “no different from a prisoner,” the President said. —ALLAN NAWAL/rga