Breaking: President Duterte invited VP Leni & family to dinner at a huddle during PNPA rites
Breaking News: From Jessica Soho, State of the Nation GMA News 7: According to confidential sources of GMA News 7, President Duterte invited Vice President Leni Robredo and her family to have dinner with him and his family, to be scheduled by Bong Go with VP Robredo’s staff, during a huddle at the Philippine National Police Academy graduation rites today.
Earlier, from GMA News online: Silang, Cavite – Amid impeachment talks and alleged ouster plots, President Rodrigo Duterte and Vice President Leni Robredo were seated next to each other at the commencement exercises of the Philippine National Police Academy (PNPA) Masidlak Class of 2017 at the Gen. Cicero C. Campos Grandstand in Camp Castañada. Duterte arrived around 10:20 a.m. for the ceremonies, while Robredo arrived earlier. When the President arrived at the grandstand, he shook hands with the Vice President and engaged her in a conversation. Interior Secretary Mike Sueno was supposed to be seated in between Duterte and Robredo. But Duterte invited Robredo to sit beside him instead, the footage of the RTVM showed. Sueno then took Robredo’s seat. It was Sueno who initially nudged Robredo to take his seat as he wouldn’t want to disrupt her conversation with the President. The Vice President declined and eventually Sueno took his place. But Duterte then invited Robredo to sit next to him, removing the pieces of paper on Sueno’s chair. This is the first time that Duterte and Robredo sat next to each other in a public event since Robredo resigned from the Cabinet. For the past few days, he had been saying that Robredo is in a hurry to claim the presidency. He even proposed for the Vice President to marry him instead. Duterte on Thursday even tagged Robredo as one of those who want him ousted. But earlier that day, Duterte defended Robredo from the impending impeachment complaint against her, calling on those planning to do so to just stop. “Look. We just had an election. Guys, lay off. Stop it. You can do other things, but do not tinker with the structure of government. I will not countenance it. Elected iyong tao eh,” Duterte said in a press briefing at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport after arriving from his trips in Myanmar and Thailand. “So, why do you have to? Just because she keeps harping on me? Hayaan mo. This is a democracy. It’s freedom of speech. Wala naman—there are no overt acts,” he added.
Du30 spox Sec. Abella vowed to investigate trolling against young women, students, critics of Duterte at the AMIC natl conference Friday morning President Duterte’s official spokesperson Sec. Ernie Abella vowed “to look into” the phenomenon of trolling when informed by a University faculty that the violent language of Duterte has been alarmingly extended by his supporters online with the use of death threats, rape threats, criminally violent and profane language against young women, students, and other ordinary citizens critical of Duterte’s policies including the Marcos burial at the Heroes’ Cemetery. These were among the points raised by some of the delegates during the national conference of the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre Friday morning, and the launch of its national headquarters, which was formerly based in Singapore. AMIC keynote speaker Secretary Abella clarified that threatening women and students online was not state policy, that it was not part of his work and he would inquire into it, and relay the concern to his colleagues. Guest speaker seasoned PR practitioner Bong Osorio, in response to a follow-up query from a reporter, said he was aware of the private corporate practice of deploying “corporate trolls” against competitors, which consisted of sub-contracting the trolling to “call-center agents” in large numbers, outside the company, with the job of putting down the competitor online. He said however that he had no first-hand knowledge of Malacañang practices and was speaking only from what he had observed of other business companies. (for details of the animated and substantive discussion, please contact the AMIC national headquarters at the Philippine Women’s University on Taft Avenue, Manila). ( the proverbial selfies, groufies, and picture-taking took place post-powwow)
