Peace covenant signing: Davide, Magpale ‘didn’t back out’

CEBU, Philippines —  The Capitol has cried foul over reports that the two top executives of the province backed out from the provincial level peace covenant signing held in City of Naga last February 19.

Ainjeliz de la Torre-Orong, provincial information officer, told The FREEMAN that Cebu Governor Hilario Davide III and Vice Governor Agnes Magpale would have attended the Tuesday event if not for prior commitments.

Orong belied reports the two Capitol officials withdrew at the last minute from attending the event.

“…knowing already that they had prior commitments for that whole week, it is not true that the governor and vice governor initially confirmed to go and backed out in the last minute, as mentioned in some news reports,” she said.

Orong said Davide and Magpale could not cancel the scheduled events, to which they already committed to attend beforehand, since these activities are also “equally important.”

During the covenant signing Davide and Magpale were in the towns of Alegria, Malabuyoc and Santander to grace the groundbreaking ceremonies of different projects and to distribute cash incentives to the barangays. Both Magpale and Davide are running for governor and vice governor, respectively.

The Cebu Police Provincial Office-initiated peace covenant signing, however, was attended by other local candidates, including gubernatorial candidate and Third District Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia and her runningmate Daphne Salimbangon.

Earlier reports quoted Police Supt. Virgilio Bayon-on, CPPO Police Community Relations officer, as saying that the Capitol confirmed that Davide and Magpale were attending the covenant signing.

Orong said they communicated with Bayon-on and the latter clarified that he was just misinterpreted by the media.

“He (Bayon-on) only said that the Capitol received the invite, but no confirmation was made on the Capitol attending the event. The only confirmation made on Monday was that the governor and the vice governor will not be able to attend,” said Orong.

She said that according to Bayon-on, the CPPO was told by the governor and vice governor’s staff on February 18 (Monday) that they would not be able to attend the covenant signing.

“The invites were received at the Governor’s Office last February 15, Friday, 3 p.m., and at the Vice Governor’s Office last February 14, 4:50 p.m. The invites were reviewed only on February 18, which was already too late to move the governor and vice governor’s schedules,” said Orong.

The peace covenant signing is one of the series of activities initiated by the police to ensure peaceful and orderly elections this coming May 13.

Orong stressed that Magpale and Davide, in principle, support and aim for peaceful elections.

“To cast doubt on their sincerity and commitment just because they failed to attend an event is superficial,” said Orong. —  FPL (FREEMAN)