FORMER CEBU CITY MAYOR MIKE RAMA (CDN FILE PHOTO)
Former Cebu City mayor Michael Rama is not giving up on his plan to meet with President Rodrigo Duterte in order to clear his name from Duterte’s so-called drug list.
This time, Rama said that he has sought the help of Cebu Archbishop Jose Palma in requesting Malacañang officials to get him an appointment with the President.
Rama personally delivered Palma’s letter to Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Ismael Sueno and Presidential Adviser on Peace Process Secretary Jesus Dureza in Manila last March 16.
“I am thankful to Archbishop Palma. He wrote a letter which I delivered to Secretary Sueno and Secretary Dureza, knocking on the door of the President to give me an opportunity for an appointment,” Rama told reporters.
“The fact alone that it was Archbishop Palma who wrote, hopefully it’s a good thing that he would also vouch that how can I be a drug protector,” he added.
Rama said that he decided to ask Palma’s help out of desperation to meet with the President in order to prove that he was not a drug protector.
Rama said Palma personally knows both Sueno and Dureza which was why the letters were addressed to them.
At the same time, Rama also wrote another letter to the President’s Chief Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo, requesting Panelo to help arrange a meeting.
Rama, through Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Dino and Presidential Adviser for Legislative Affairs former Cordova mayor Adelino Sitoy, had tried to meet with Duterte when the President was in Cebu for the groundbreaking ceremony of the Cebu-Cordova Link Expressway project last March 2.
However, he was told that Duterte’s schedule was very hectic.
Rama also earlier asked the help of the President’s special assistant Christopher “Bong” Go, Senate President Koko Pimentel, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, Deputy House Speaker Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.
He said he even met and talked with Philippine National Police chief Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa.
All were unable to help him.