Duterte, Matillano patch up their differences

DAVAO CITY — All’s well that ends well.

After a few weeks of heated bickerings, Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and Senior Superintendent Eduardo Matillano, Southern Mindanao police director, kissed and made up yesterday afternoon in a meeting brokered by Presidential Assistant for Mindanao Jesus Dureza at the boardroom of the Waterfront Insular Hotel.

The three officials talked to reporters after emerging from the closed-door meeting.

Both Duterte and Matillano apologized to each other, with the mayor promising to restore, and even increase, the assistance the city government has been giving the Davao City police.

On top of the regular assistance, the city police will also be getting 15 new vehicles and a 30 percent increase in gasoline allowance.

As part of his reconciliatory gesture, Duterte said he was willing to assume the chairmanship of both the regional and city peace and order councils.

Duterte and Matillano both admitted their mistakes and promised to rectify them by forging a working relationship for the city’s good.

From now on, the two officials said they would embark on a "newfound" friendship, promising to be buddies in golf and target shooting.

"Upon clearing things up with him, I came to an apology. I take back all the harsh words I said against the good police colonel. I must be man enough to say that I take back my harsh words," Duterte said.

Matillano did the same thing, saying it was good to have cleared things up with the mayor.

"Maybe I was taken out of context with all those stories coming out about what I supposedly said against him. I apologized to the mayor," he said.

Matillano said he had to apologize to Duterte, citing their affiliation in the Guardian Brotherhood Movement and the Reform the Armed Forces Movement (RAM).

Duterte and Matillano also asked the different broadcast and print media outfits not to mention anymore the harsh words they earlier had uttered against each other.

"Let it be that way for the good of the city. Forget everything harsh that we had said earlier," they echoed.

Dureza, for his part, clarified that the reconciliation between Duterte and Matillano was a local-level initiative and not upon the insistence of President Arroyo.

"The President has nothing to do with this. But I am acting on this as a representative of the President," he said.

Dureza also refused to say if the Duterte-Matillano rift was ever mentioned during his informal talks with the President in the past few weeks.

"I cannot divulge what I have informally taken up with the President," he said.

What is important, Dureza said, is that the rift between the two officials was resolved and that a happy compromise was reached for the betterment of the city.