Former president Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo invited Duterte at her residence here for a thanksgiving celebration in honor of the town’s patron St. Augustine. However, the inclement weather prevented the president’s helicopter from taking off twice and had to postpone his trip.
“Talagang pupunta siya. Lumilipad na nga ang helicopter niya two times pero hindi maka-alis (He is really coming. His helicopter attempted to fly two times but couldn’t take off ),” Arroyo said.
It was already around 3 p.m. when the announcement was made that Duterte will no longer be able to come.
Instead, Arroyo and Yasay met with relatives of KSA death row inmates led by Edison Gonzales’ wife Rosie who were anticipating the arrival of the president.
“Sana po yung pung president natin kung makakausap niya ang hari maisingit ang kaso ng kaanak namin. Yun lang po ang pina-aabot ng mister ko kay President Duterte. Yun lang ang sasabihin mo sabi niya (We hope that our president, if he can talk to the king, can mention the case of our relatives. That’s all my husband wanted to tell President Duterte. That’s all you need to say, he said),” Gonzales’ wife said.
Yasay said President Duterte wanted to go to Saudi. His plan was to charter two airplanes to fetch stranded OFWs.
But since he is already the president he should follow protocol with proper coordination between the two governments which got delayed because of the hajj, the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Yasay explained.
Yasay said they were told by the Saudi Foreign Ministry that it is not advisable for a president of a country to go to the kingdom unannounced and without proper coordination because that will be misconstrued as “offensive.”
Yasay said as soon as the plan pushes through, their concerns will be included in the talks.
Arroyo said the proper way is through a state visit but the coordination was delayed because of the hajj.
The Gonzales brothers, Edison and Rolando, were convicted in 2007 with the murder of Filipinos Romeo Lumbang, Jeremias Bacud and Dante Rivero.
The families of the two slain Filipinos have already given their forgiveness and the blood money needed for their release was already paid by Arroyo, who was then president. The blood money was culled from the intelligence funds of Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Offi ce (PCSO), Arroyo said.
But the Certificate of Forgiveness came out only in October 2010 when she was no longer president, Arroyo said.
“Bumaba ako bago nakuha ang Certifi cate of Forgiveness pero tinuloy ko nga even as ex-president and Archbishop (Paciano) Aniceto helped me (I stepped down [from the presidency] before we got the Certificate of Forgiveness but I followed it up even as ex-president…),” she explained.
“Kaya nila ako binilanggo kasama ‘yun sa PCSO scandal (That is why they imprisoned me because that (blood money) is included in the PCSO scandal),” said Arroyo which elicited emotional cries of “thank you” from the death row relatives.
Yasay said fi rst thing next week he would call the Saudi ambassador and ask him to visit his office so that he can tell him the plan and how to expedite the process of the OFWs release.
“Ang aking ine-expect ay matapos ang proseso before the end of the year, mas maganda sana (What I’m expecting is for the process to be fi nish before the end of the year, that will be better),” he said.
