Duterte won’t attend Bonifacio Day ceremony in Caloocan

FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte makes a phone call while delivering his speech during the groundbreaking ceremony for the Ozamiz Airport Modernization Project in Ozamiz City, Misamis Occidental on November 28, 2018. TOTO LOZANO/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

President Rodrigo Duterte will not be able to attend today’s commemoration of the 155th birth anniversary of Andres Bonifacio in Caloocan City.

In a message sent to reporters on Friday, November 30, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said Duterte “has to fly to Mindanao to attend to the problem of insurgency in Mindanao.”

Panelo, however, did not specify what particular “insurgency” happened in the President’s home region.

Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea will instead fill in for Duterte at the ceremony, the spokesman added.

With the theme “Bonifacio 2018: Tapang, Sakripisyo, Pagbabago,” Duterte is supposed to lead the flag raising and wreath laying ceremonies at the Bonifacio National Monument at 3:30 p.m.

In an article published by Philippine Information Agency (PIA), Duterte is also supposed to be assisted by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) Chairman Rene R.

Escalante, NHCP Acting Executive Director Ludovico D. Badoy, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief of Staff General Carlito G. Galvez, Jr., First District of Caloocan Congressman Gale Gonzalo Malapitan, Second District of Caloocan Congressman Edgar R. Erice, Caloocan City Mayor Oscar G. Malapitan, and Mr. Ron Paulo Bonifacio upon his arrival.

This was the second time Duterte missed such ceremony. The President did not appear in the 154th birth anniversary of the country’s revolutionary hero in 2017 as he was going to a “conflict-ridden” area in Mindanao, according to Malacañang.

In his Bonifacio Day message last year, Duterte urged Filipino’s to join his administration’s move to free the country from criminality and terror.

“At a time when the future of our country is at stake, all of us are called to become actively involved in nation-building,” Duterte previously said.

“Let us fight to free ourselves from the grasp of corruption, criminality and illegal drugs; to liberate our people from the clutches of terror and violence; and to preserve our ideals, values and way of life,” he added.