“I have foreseen that.”
Thus said Mandaluyong Mayor Benjamin Abalos, Sr. on the recent resignation of Vice President Sara Duterte both as Department of Education Secretary and Vice-Chair of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
During his guesting at the ‘MACHRA Balitaan’ held by the Manila City Hall Reporters’ Asociation at the Harbor View Restaurant, Abalos said that he had foreseen what happened to VP Duterte “because of her father and family’s differences on matter of running government.”
“Nakakaawa naman siya siyempre. Between your father and your family and your loyalty to the party, ‘yun ang nangyari sa kanya so, she has no alternative but to resign,” he said.
The former Comelec and MMDA chairman also said that he sees realignments in the coming days following the resignation of VP Duterte from her two concurrent posts.
“Magkakaroon siyempre ng realignments although as a matter of fact, even without this, sigurado yan meron tayong realignments … temporary lang naman ang union nung nakaraan. Kitang-kita naman natin na me kanya-kanya. Ganyan naman talaga ang politics, no permanent friends or enemies,” Abalos said.
Meanwhile, Abalos said that banning Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGO) altogether as proposed by the China Embassy wll no longer have any impact as far as the city of Mandaluyong is concerned.
Abalos said that the city already lost ithe benefits that it derives from legitimate or licensed POGO operations when the pandemic hit, even lamenting that the said operations never came back after the pandemic.
On the crimes being spawned by POGO operations, Abalos said: “lahat naman ng negosyo may kalokohan. It is just a matter of policing.”
He added that Mandaluyong also had its share of POGO but that it never encountered any problems.
