Duterte to join command confab, visit Moises Padilla town in Negros Occidental

PHOTO by Carla P. Gomez/Inquirer Visayas

BACOLOD CITY — President Duterte is joining a command conference on Wednesday to discuss the security situation in the Negros provinces.

Government Service Insurance System president and general manager Jesus Clint Aranas said the President would visit Moises Padilla, a town placed under Commission on Elections (Comelec) control following the violence there.

President Duterte, he said, would also announce the release of assistance to agrarian reform beneficiaries in Sagay City.

An Inquirer source said the President would meet with police and Army officials of Western and Central Visayas.

“It will be a brief visit,” the source said.

Moises Padilla was placed under Comelec control last Monday following the killing of Councilor Michael Garcia and his uncle, Mark Garcia, former Moises Padilla Liga ng mga Barangay president, in a daylight ambush staged by an armed group in Barangay Inolingan, Moises Padilla, on April 25.

It was not known if the President would visit the wake of the slain Garcias in Moises Padilla.

Moises Padilla Vice Mayor Ella Celestina Garcia-Yulo, who survived the April 25 ambush, earlier appealed for help from the President following the killing of her nephew, Michael, and brother Mark.

“I hope the President answers our appeal for help,” said Garcia-Yulo, who is running for mayor of Moises Padilla against incumbent Mayor Magdaleno Peña.

Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr., in a memorandum, directed all department heads of the provincial government, to provide vehicles to all the staff of the President for the latter’s emergency visit.