Rody: Russian trip no junket

DAVAO CITY , Philippines  – President Duterte insisted that his trip to Russia last month was not a junket, even if a number of retiring military and police officers and their spouses went along with him.

He said he received a lot of flak, including from former president Fidel Ramos, who described the trip as a junket.

“It was not. We got about P9 billion of ready-made transactions,” the President said in a pep talk with police personnel at the Southern Mindanao Regional Police Office in Camp Catitipan here.

Duterte pointed out that since it was a chartered flight, the payment for the Philippine Airlines Boeing 777 would still be the same whether it was only him riding the aircraft or if it was packed with people.

“I mean, even if I do not bring anybody in that PAL flight (I would still be paying the same amount),” he said partly in Filipino, arguing that it would be a lot better to fill it.

Besides, the President thought that it would be his token of appreciation to the retiring officers if he would invite them and their spouses to go with him to Russia.

“Since I would be paying the same amount, I said ‘You come with me because that is the only way that I can show you that this is also a nation who has gratitude for you. Come with me, bring your spouses along and I will show you around’,” Duterte said.

About 70 officers and spouses went with him on the aircraft that could seat more than 360 persons.

Given all the criticisms, the Chief Executive stressed that he accomplished what he hoped to get from the trip even if he stayed for only about six hours.

Duterte cut short his supposed four-day visit to Russia when he declared martial law for all of Mindanao after members of the terrorist Maute group attacked Marawi City on May 23, displacing more than 100,000 persons and killing more than 70 civilians and government troopers.

He added that he was able to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin for about an hour and 10 minutes. The Russian president had to rush in from another region after the change in Duterte’s schedule.

“Russia as I said is a vast expanse of territory. Part of Russia straddles Asia and part of it also is in Europe. But Putin was somewhere else but I got the – before he said he would be coming in; if I can just wait six hours, he would fly in,” Duterte said.

Duterte said the short time he talked with the Russian president was enough to accomplish what he had hoped to achieve.