Rama fails anew to meet with Duterte

Former mayor Michael Rama (center) asks President Duterte to give him an opportunity to be heard. He made the call during a press conference, together with Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella (left) and Councilor Joel Garganera (right).
CDN PHOTO/Jose Santino Bunachita

HE tried, but former Cebu City mayor Michael Rama still failed to secure an audience with President Rodrigo Duterte who visited Cebu to attend the groundbreaking of the Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway (CCLEX) project last Thursday.

Rama said he was in his law office in Barangay Capitol Site in Cebu City last Thursday afternoon when the President led the groundreaking ceremony for the project in Cordova town.

He said he texted Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Dino and former Cordova mayor and now Presidential Adviser on Legislative Affairs Adelino Sitoy, who were both with the President for the ceremony, but to no avail.

“There was connection but no possibility (of meeting),” Rama said.

While Dino did not respond to Rama’s text, he said it was Sitoy who told him that it was difficult for him to meet with President Duterte due to his hectic schedule.

The President arrived in Cebu at past 4 p.m. on Thursday and immediately boarded a chopper going to the site of the groundbreaking ceremony where he arrived at 4:50 p.m.

He then went to Waterfront Airport Hotel and Casino where he inducted the officers and trustees of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI). After the event, he immediately left Cebu.

Rama has been mentioned at least twice by President Duterte in separate speeches this year and last year as part of his list of alleged narco-politicians.
The former mayor denied the allegation and had been trying to seek an audience with President Duterte ever since.