Former president and now incumbent House Deputy Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is trying to convince fellow former president Rodrigo Duterte to be active in politics again.
Sen. Christopher "Bong" Go (left), poses with former president and current House Deputy Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, former president Rodrigo Duterte and former Senate president Vicente Sotto III during a recent dinner. (Facebook Photo/Sen. Bong Go)
Sen. Christopher “Bong” Go disclosed this a few days after he revealed details of the “informal meeting” between him, Arroyo, Duterte, over the weekend.
Also present during the dinner meeting were former Senate president Vicente Sotto III and former Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea.
“Isang simpleng kamustahan at masayang pagkikita ang nangyari kasama ang mga pinunong naglingkod sa bayan sa iba’t ibang posisyon o kapasidad noong mga nakaraang administrasyon. Nagbalik-tanaw sila sa mga panahong nagkasama sila sa gobyerno (A simple greeting and happy meeting happened with the leaders who served the people in different positions or capacities during the previous administrations. They looked back on the times they spent together in government),” Go said when sought to clarify details about their dinner get-together.
“Sa nasabing pagkikita, kinukumbinsi din ni dating pangulong Arroyo si dating pangulong Duterte na maging aktibo muli sa pulitika (In the said meeting, former president Arroyo is trying to convince former president Duterte to become active in politics again),” he added.
“Sabi ko nga, magkaiba man ng pinanggalingan, iba't iba man ang hinawakan nilang posisyon sa gobyerno, iisa lang ang kanilang hangarin---ang paglingkuran ang sambayanan (As I said, even if they come from different backgrounds, even if they hold different positions in the government, they have only one desire—to serve the people),” Go further stressed.
The senator posted the photos of their meeting in his Facebook post over the weekend.
Asked who initiated the meeting, Go said it was Arroyo, through her staff, who invited him and Duterte to an informal meeting. According to him, the former president was in Manila at that time.
“Nagkataong magkasama kami ni Tatay Digong noon matapos ko siyang samahan sa kanyang medical check up sa hospital, gaya ng dati kong ginagawa sa kanya (Coincidentally, me and former president Digong were together after I accompanied him for a medical check up in the hospital, which I used to do back then),” he said.
And since Duterte rarely comes to Manila, Medialdea, and Sotto took the opportunity to also meet the former president, having been friends with the former chief executive.
Sotto, for his part said, the dinner "was a mutually arranged meeting by Sen. Bong and ES knowing I wanted to say hello to PRRD being long time friends."
"Kamustahan lang. GMA (Arroyo's initials) arrived separately and stayed for a while only," Sotto added.
According to Sotto, he was supposed to visit Duterte in Davao last week, "but I was told he was coming over."
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'Get-together': Political bigwigs Duterte, Arroyo, Sotto gather in a reunion dinner
https://mb.com.ph/2023/9/10/get-together-political-bigwigs-duterte-arroyo-sotto-gather-in-a-reunion-dinner