ANTIQUE – Provincial Administrator Nery G. Duremdes wrote an open letter to the Antiqueños to address what has been discussed on social media right after Vice President Leni Robredo visited the province on Feb. 16.
“So much has been said on social media by parties and partisans from ‘both sides of the fence’ who eloquently expressed their views and critical thoughts on the issues. In a constructive sense, this has been a demonstration of democracy in action in Antique,” according to Duremdes.
His open letter shared “what I know about the matter”:
* On Feb. 16, Gov. Rhodora Cadiao was in Manila for a personal engagement to which she was invited sometime in January. She did not have prior knowledge of Robredo’s visit nor the arrangements and other details of such visit.
* Vice Gov. Ed Denosta was the Acting Governor on Feb. 16 and he deemed it appropriate to welcome Robredo “at his very home” – the Provincial Legislative Building where the Sangguniang Panlalawigan is located.
“I would like to believe that Vice Governor Ed Denosta did so with the honest impression that it was proper and appropriate to welcome and receive Vice President Leni Gerona Robredo at his very home and not somewhere else,” according to Duremdes.
For his part as Provincial Administrator, according to Duremdes, he joined Denosta “in according the befitting welcome to Vice President Leni Gerona Robredo, and I did so in my personal capacity and in representation of Governor Rhodora “Dodod” Cadiao who, to all intents and purpose, may be deemed as if she were personally present on that occasion.”
In a telephone conversation with Cadiao, according to Duremdes, the governor said that if she were not in Manila on Feb. 16, it would have been an honor and privilege on her part to have welcomed the Vice President, “just as she would have with respect to any other visiting dignitary in accordance with her understanding of the rules of propriety and decorum as well as the cherished Antiqueňo virtue of hospitality.”
With Robredo’s visit already over, Duremdes urged Antiqueños to “be ready to move on and to engage in things for the best, most salutary and beneficial purposes…After all, we have already sufficiently heard so much of what have been said on the cross-current issues.”
“This we ought to do so that at the end of the day we can proudly say that it is the admirable Antiqueño spirit that leads us onward until we find our efforts honored with love instead of hatred, with joy in lieu of sadness, and hope rather than despair,” according to Duremdes./PN
