ILOILO City – President Rodrigo Duterte accepted the invitation to grace the centennial celebration of the municipality of Maasin, Iloilo on July 25. But his tight schedule prevented him from going.
He tapped his daughter, Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio of Davao City, to represent him.
But the mayor also failed to attend the celebration on Wednesday although her advanced party was already in Maasin two days earlier.
Mayor Mariano Malones said a staff of the Davao mayor called him up and explained that the President summoned his daughter to an emergency meeting in Malacañang on Wednesday.
Still, Malones preferred to view things positively.
According to Inspector Jose Oswald, officer-in-charge of the Maasin municipal police station, some 6,000 people gathered in and around the covered gym of the town on Wednesday in the hope of seeing Mayor Duterte-Carpio.
“I’m happy that the President accepted our invitation. We hope, though, that sometime in the future before his term ends he would be able to visit Maasin himself,” said Malones.
He added: “Ang sincerity to come nabatyagan man naton. (Her not being able to make it here) indi man daku nga issue.”
The President linked Malones to illegal drugs in August 2016 but according to Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr., an updated list of the so-called narco list of the President did not anymore include the mayor.
Malones denied having anything to do with illegal drugs.
Maasin’s Tultogan Festival was showcased at the centennial celebration. It is an annual cultural festivity that celebrates the municipality’s thriving bamboo industry – an economic driver of the municipality.
Malones said his local government wanted Maasin to be known as the “bamboo capital” of Iloilo.
Maasin is a third-class municipality. According to the 2015 census, it has a population of 36,922 people.
Some 30 kilometers from Iloilo City, Maasin hogged headlines last year. On June 18, 2017 New People’s Army (NPA) rebels stormed the municipal police station and immobilized nine helpless police officers.
The daring, broad daylight incursion was swift. Within 15 minutes beginning around 10:30 a.m., the rebels shanghaied M16 rifles, Glock .9mm pistols, handheld radios, laptops, cash, and jewelry.
According to Ka Julio Montana, spokesperson of the NPA-Panay (Coronacion Chiva “Waling-Waling” Command), the Maasin police tolerated the proliferation of illegal drugs and illegal gambling in the town. Malones denied this.
The raid was NPA-Panay’s answer, too, to Oplan Kapayapaan all-out war campaign of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine National Police against the revolutionary movement, Montana added.
Oplan Kapayapaan resulted to rampant human rights violations such as illegal arrests, bombings of communities, forced evacuation of villagers, and killings of suspected rebels, among others, said Montana./PN
