HEADLINES

Rejoin politics, Gloria tells Rody

DT · Sep 12, 2023, 12:22 AM

Powwow? When two former Presidents, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Rodrigo Duterte (third from left), meet to touch base, their small talk crescendoes into wild public speculations. Arroyo — according to Senator Bong Go, also shown with former Senate President Tito Sotto — urged Duterte to unretire and rejoin the topsy-turvy world of Philippine politics. | PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF SBG

Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo tried to convince former president Rodrigo Duterte to unretire and return to politics, Senator Christopher "Bong" Go confirmed yesterday.
Go, who served as a long-time assistant to Duterte during his years as Davao City mayor and later as Special Assistant to the President during Duterte's term, said Arroyo invited Duterte to an informal gathering.

Herself a former president, Arroyo extended the invitation upon learning that Duterte was in Manila for a medical checkup, Go said. Former Senate president Vicente Sotto and former executive secretary Salvador Medialdea joined the Arroyo-Duterte meet-up, he added.

"It was a simple but happy reunion among leaders who had served the country in various positions or capacities in the past administrations," Go said in Filipino. "They reminisced about the times they were in government together."

Weeks before the start of the election period for the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections set for 30 October this year, Duterte fanned speculations he may seek a government position even at the grassroots level just to be active again.

He titillated his supporters enough that they reckoned he was contemplating a run for village chief or barangay captain. Duterte, however, did not follow through.