Eastern Visayas local officials to meet Duterte

TACLOBAN CITY, Feb. 6  -- Almost all local chief executives in Eastern Visayas have confirmed their attendance to President Rodrigo Duterte’s meeting with governors and mayors from Visayas and Mindanao in Cebu City on February 12.

As of Monday, 141 of the region’s 149 governors and mayors have confirmed to the Department of the Interior and Local Government’s (DILG) regional office here their presence in the meeting.

“It will be a dialogue with the President on various issues. As to the agenda, we have no idea,” said DILG-8 (Eastern Visayas) Director Marivel Sacendoncillo.

Sacendoncillo told reporters on Tuesday that all six governors, seven city mayors, and a big majority of the 136 town mayors would join the meeting.

Two mayors from Samar province earlier declined to attend the dialogue due to very important commitments, he said, declining to name them.

“We expect that 100 percent of our local chief executives would be able to make it because the instruction is that there’s no substitution,” she added.

DILG Undersecretary Austere Panadero, in an advisory, asked participants to be at the venue between 1:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m.

The meeting with the President will start at 2:45 p.m. Those who have failed to confirm will not be allowed to enter the venue.

This will be the Chief Executive’s third meeting with governors and mayors. The first was in Davao City and the second, in Malacañan. (SQM/PNA)