BACOLOD City – Change of plan.
President Rodrigo Duterte will arrive in this city today, a top administration official told the city government.
Government Service Insurance System president Jesus Clint Aranas said the scheduled visit of the President will be today instead of tomorrow.
Aranas, president of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino – Lakas ng Bayan provincial council in Negros Occidental, told Mayor Evelio Leonardia about the change in schedule over the phone on Thursday.
The city government’s Public Information Office furnished the press an audio clip of the conversation.
Duterte will come with Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, a former special assistant and now a senatorial candidate, Aranas said.
The President was scheduled to arrive at 5 p.m. and head straight to the public plaza, the venue of the Street and Arena Dance Competition, Schools Category that day.
According to Aranas, Duterte will just meet the people as he “normally” does during visits, and then fly out.
Earlier Councilor Em Ang said Davao City mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, the President’s daughter, will also visit Bacolod today.
She will be at the public plaza by 3 p.m. and was scheduled to go to the Tourism Strip on Lacson Street and the Bacolod City Government Center.
This will be the third consecutive year that President Duterte is witnessing the MassKara Festival.
Duterte became the first-ever chief executive to grace the MassKara during the opening of its 37th edition on Oct. 2, 2016.
In 2017, Dutere attended the festival highlights on Oct. 22. He watched the performance of Barangay 18, which was eventually declared champion in the Street and Arena Dance Competition.
Earlier Leonardia said it will be historic once Duterte agrees to grace the festival again this year.
“I don’t think there is any festival in the Philippines the President has visited consistently three times,” the mayor said.
SIGNAL-JAMMING
Meanwhile the Bacolod City Police Office announced that there will be a signal jamming at the three festival sites – public plaza, Bacolod City Government Center and Tourism Strip – today and tomorrow from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Police are also carrying out a ban on firearms and other deadly weapons.
Competing in the elementary level of the Street and Arena Dance Competition, Schools Category are:
* Education and Training Center School II
* Sum-ag Elementary School
* ABKASA Elementary School
* Montevista Elementary School
* Patricia Homes Elementary School
* A.L. Jayme Elementary School
* Crispino V. Ramos Elementary School
For the high school level, contenders include Singcang-Airport National High School, Mandalagan National High School, Bacolod City National High School, and Mansilingan Agro National High School./PN
