Listening Tour RODY DUTERTE IN BULACAN, CABANATUAN CITY TODAY

By Manny Piñol

Davao City Mayor Rody Duterte’s “Listening Tour,” a series of town hall meetings across the country for his Federalism advocacy, brings him to San Jose del Monte, Bulacan and Cabanatuan City today.

The sorties today will be the second leg of the “Listening Tour” which started in Butuan City on Jan. 22 and Jan. 25 in Zamboanga City.

Pagadian City was included in the first leg of the Tour but zero visibility at the city’s airport on Jan. 26 prevented the Duterte group to land prompting the Davao City Mayor to call up his college friend and now Zamboanga del Sur Governor Antonio Cerilles to apologize and to commit that he will have another schedule in the area.

On Thursday, he was in a college forum in Cebu City, the first area he visited in the second leg of the “Listening Tour.”

The “Listening Tour” was designed by advisers and friends of Duterte who are urging him to consider the idea of vying for the Presidency in the 2016 elections, to allow him to actually feel the pulse of the people of the people.

Duterte moves around advocating the adoption of a Federal Parliamentary form of government which he believes would result in the equitable sharing of the national resources and spur the development of the poor regions of the country.

During the forum, he also shares his experiences in Davao City in the campaign against corruption in government, drugs and criminality which contributed to making the city the 4th Safest to Live In worldwide.

Following the Mamasapano, Maguindanao massacre of 44 members of the Special Action Force (SAF) policemen by combined forces of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the BIFF, Duterte has called on Congress to defer the deliberations on the Bangsamoro Basic Law until an investigation is completed and those responsible for the carnage are brought to justice.

Duterte, who supports the peace process which could give the MILF vast powers in the predominantly Muslim-populated areas in Mindanao, was angered by the brutality and savagery of the killing of the policemen who were dispatched to arrest internationl terrorist and bomb-making expert Zulkifli bin HIr, alias Marwan, a Malahysian wno carried a $6-M reward.

Duterte, saying that Justice is the foundation of lasting peace, said the culpabillity of the MILF and the BIFF and those in government who reportedly planned and implemented the operation must be determined before the talks for peace are resumed.

The “Listening Tour” proceeds to Puerto Princesa City in Palawan on Monday. It will last for almost two months, after which Mayor Duterte is expected to decide whether people genuinely want him to be the next President.

While he has categorically declared in the past that he was not interested to run, Duterte lately said he will listen to the voice of the people and await a sign from God before making a decision.

(Photo caption: Mayor Rody Duterte in Zamboanga City. Kiwi Bulaclac)