Admin hit for alleged sabotage of Duterte’s miting de avance

MANILA, Philippines - The camp of presidential candidate and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte hit the current administration and Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer Mar Roxas for allegedly sabotaging the venue for Duterte’s miting de avance at the Rizal Park tomorrow afternoon.

Duterte’s spokesman Peter Laviña took to social media, saying that the minions of President Aquino and Roxas have brought in backhoes and dug up some parts of the park where Duterte’s final rally will be held.

“Noy and Mar are so petty. They brought in backhoes to dig up Luneta so it would not be of any use in our rally,” Laviña said on his Facebook account.

But Rizal Park officials said they were only removing the asphalt from the Burnham green of Rizal Park and have no intention of sabotaging or disrupting Duterte’s miting de avance.

This was the explanation given by National Parks and Development Committee engineer Eduardo Villain Jr. yesterday after pictures of a backhoe on the Burnham green portion of Rizal Park circulated in social media.

“I understand that some people might inject malice after pictures of a backhoe at the Burnham green were posted on social media. But we are just putting grass and restoring the place to its previous form to make it more beautiful,” Villalon told The STAR yesterday.

He added that they could not go full blast with the restoration of the Burnham green because they are just borrowing the backhoe from the contractor doing a drainage project nearby. They could only use the backhoe when it was not being used by the contractor. – With Evelyn Macairan