{"id":255115,"date":"2020-05-17T05:30:19","date_gmt":"2020-05-17T09:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=255115"},"modified":"2020-05-17T05:30:19","modified_gmt":"2020-05-17T09:30:19","slug":"duterte-expected-to-return-to-manila-before-tuesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/05\/17\/duterte-expected-to-return-to-manila-before-tuesday\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte expected to return to Manila before Tuesday"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte at the Malago Clubhouse in Malaca\u00f1ang on May 11, 2020. ACE MORANDANTE\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to return to Manila on or before Tuesday to attend a scheduled meeting with members of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) in Malaca\u00f1ang on the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) situation in the country.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made this announcement as he explained that the President\u2019s visit to his hometown, Davao City, will be a short one since he has to prioritize work.<\/p>\n

\u201cSandali lang po. Alam ko po ay mayroong<\/em>\u00a0meeting\u00a0na naka-schedule sa<\/em>\u00a0Malaca\u00f1ang\u00a0ng<\/em>\u00a0Tuesday (It will be a short visit. I know he has a scheduled meeting in Malaca\u00f1ang on Tuesday),\u201d Roque said in an interview over DZBB on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Duterte\u2019s former aide and now Senator Christopher \u201cBong\u201d Go accompanied Duterte on his trip to Davao City, he added.<\/p>\n

He justified Duterte’s return to his hometown, saying he was also there to assess the situation in Mindanao, which is now under general community quarantine (GCQ).<\/p>\n

“Alam ko magiging isyu ito pero huwag nating kalimutan na iyong ginawa naman ng ating Presidente na pag-uwi sa<\/em>\u00a0Davao,\u00a0hindi lang pagbisita<\/em>\u00a0after 67 days\u00a0kung hindi Presidente rin siya. Kinakailangan niya namang malaman kung ano ang nangyayari sa<\/em>\u00a0Mindanao\u00a0\u2018no dahil ang buong<\/em>\u00a0Mindanao\u00a0ngayon po ay bumabalik na sa<\/em>\u00a0normal. So\u00a0hindi po naman maaalis sa katungkulan ng Presidente iyan \u2018no<\/em>\u00a0(I know this will be an issue but let’s not forget that the President’s return to Davao is not just to visit after 67 days but also because he’s President. He needs to know what’s happening in Mindanao because the whole of Mindanao is now back to normal. So you cannot remove that duty from the President),” he said.<\/p>\n

Roque, meanwhile, assured that the Presidential Security Group (PSG) has made it a point that the President observed all health and safety protocols in his flight back to his hometown.<\/p>\n

\u201cSi<\/em>\u00a0President\u00a0po kasi<\/em>\u00a0continuous quarantine\u00a0eh, maski nagmi<\/em>-meeting\u00a0po kami sa kaniya ay naka<\/em>-isolate\u00a0po siya, malayo siya sa amin<\/em>. So\u00a0talagang binabantayan po siya at iniingatan po ng<\/em>\u00a0PSG (The President is on a continuous quarantine. Even when we hold meetings with him, he\u2019s isolated, he sits far from us. So the PSG is really guarding and taking care of him),\u201d he said,<\/p>\n

On Saturday, PSG Commander, Col. Jesus Durante III confirmed that Duterte flew home to Davao City after the community quarantine in Metro Manila was relaxed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes. He (Duterte) is in Davao for a visit after more than two months of not being able to see his family,\u201d Durante said in a text message to reporters.<\/p>\n

Duterte has been staying in Malaca\u00f1an Palace in Manila since he imposed an enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), the most stringent community quarantine, in the entire Luzon on March 16.<\/p>\n

He was supposed to return to his hometown, Davao City to join his family in celebrating the 16th birthday of his youngest child, Veronica, on April 10.<\/p>\n

Duterte, however, decided to stay in Manila for over two months to monitor his administration\u2019s Covid-19 response efforts.<\/p>\n

In a speech on April 16, Duterte bared that his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte stopped him from flying to his hometown and that he himself had no choice but to follow the quarantine guidelines set by the city government.<\/p>\n

He admitted that declaring a quarantine was \u201ca cruel action by government\u201d but said it was necessary to prevent more people from getting infected by the disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis thing about quarantine is a cruel action by the government.\u00a0Hindi madali ito. Pati ako nasasaktan.<\/em>\u00a0The problem\u00a0is kung magdikit-dikit uli<\/em>\u00a0(It\u2019s not easy. I also feel hurt. The problem is if there is crowding again),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte, meanwhile, appealed to local government units and the public to follow guidelines.<\/p>\n

Metro Manila and the provinces of Laguna, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, and Zambales were placed under modified ECQ (MECQ) from May 16 to 31, based on Resolution 37 inked by the IATF-EID on May 15. Only the cities of Cebu and Mandaue in Cebu province remained under ECQ.<\/p>\n

All places nationwide that are not under ECQ or MECQ were placed under GCQ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte is expected to return to Manila on or before Tuesday to attend a scheduled meeting with …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":254539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-255115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":255116,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255115\/revisions\/255116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}