DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 29 January) – While waiting for the arrival of former President Rodrigo Duterte at the “Hakbang ng Maisug Leaders’ Forum” late Sunday afternoon at the Grand Men Seng Hotel, the emcee announced that packed food for dinner was available outside the function rooms and forum participants can either eat them inside or bring them to the rally venue at the San Pedro Square a few hundred meters away.
The Leaders’ Forum occupied all four huge function rooms of the hotel that could accommodate 1,000 participants.
President Rodrigo Duterte’s first executive secretary Vic Rodriguez at the Hakbang ng Maisug Leaders Forum in Davao City on 28 January 2024. MindaNews photo by MANMAN DEJETO
Who financed the forum and rally, MindaNews asked former Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco and Councilor Conrado Baluran. Evasco is a long-time political strategist of Duterte while Baluran delivered a privilege speech on January 23 against moves to amend the 1987 Constitution through an alleged “People’s Initiative.” He invited his colleagues to the January 29 rally.
MindaNews is still awaiting the reply of Evasco and Baluran.
Zegen Management Group, a Davao City-based event organizer that managed the inauguration of Vice President Sara Duterte in 2022, also managed Sunday’s event. It had earlier asked the City Transport and Traffic Management Office (CTTMO) for road closure in the vicinity of the rally venue, from 10 p.m. on January 26 until 5 a.m. on January 29, a request endorsed by the CTTMO to Councilor Baluran, head of the City Council’s Committee on Transportation and Communications, for his “perusal and appropriate action.” The endorsement was approved by the City Council.
According to the servers, the packed dinner for groups of participants that were displayed on the long table outside the hotel’s function rooms — Serenade, Granada, Monte Claire and Moonshine –totaled 900. The caterer was Chippens and according to the sticker on the pack, the meal consisted of chicken macaroni salad, beef steak, grilled tuna belly, steamed batchoy in butter sesame and steamed white rice.
Plastic bags containing packed dinner for groups of participants at the Hakbang ng Maisug Leaders’ Forum, for participants to eat inside the Grand Men Seng Hotel function rooms or to bring to the rally site. MindaNews photo by CAROLYN O. ARGUILLAS
MindaNews phoned the caterer how much it would cost to order the same packed meal and was told it costs 680 pesos for a minimum of 50 persons. For 900 persons, that would be 612,000 pesos although a discount may have been offered for a huge number of packs.
That amount is only for the send-off packed meals.
Earlier, hotel sources said lunch was prepared for 1,000 but only 700 ate inside the venue. Morning and afternoon snacks were also served.
MindaNews asked the hotel how much it would cost to use the Serenade, one of four function rooms used during the forum, and was told it could accommodate 130 to 140 persons at 1,300 pesos per person for lunch and two snacks. Feeding a thousand persons in the four function rooms would cost P1.3 million while feeding 700 persons would cost 910,000 pesos.
At the rally, MindaNews noted piles of trash along the sides of San Pedro Street, from boxes of Jollibee meals, with some people still eating packed meals from the fastfood chain. Thousands of empty bottles of water were also left behind.
Piles of trash consisting of boxes of Jollibee meals and empty bottles of water could be seen n various parts of San Pedro Street in Davao City during the rally Sunday, 28 January 2024. MindaNews photo by CAROLYN O. ARGUILLAS
The rally, according to police estimates, gathered 53,500 persons but using a tool called Mapchecking, MindaNews determined that even at a fully packed capacity, the stretch of San Pedro Street from CM Recto to Legaspi can only be filled to around 27,443 persons at 1.50 people per square meter. Crowded, the area would only have around 13,721 persons.
“Dabawenyos are not for sale” statement shirts worn by participants to the “candlelight prayer rally” on Sunday , 28 January 2024. Others printed the same statement on tarpaulin. MindaNews photo by MANMAN DEJETO
Based on the police estimate of 53,500 rally participants, organizers of the event would have shelled out at least 5.35 million pesos for a 100-peso meal, if the police estimates were accurate.
Another cost for rally organizers is for the event organizer and transportation to ferry participants to the forum and the rally and back to their respective origins. A participant from Barangay Marilog said there were 60 of them who were ferried in jeepneys. Others were seen on board trucks and buses.
Attendance to the Leaders’ Forum was by invitation and according to messages passed on to reporters, attendees from outside Davao City were told “it would be much appreciated if you could take responsibility for shouldering your transportation and accommodations.” Most of the participants were from Davao City’s barangays.
The rally was an open invitation.
Statement shirts
Statement shirts were distributed at the Leaders’ Forum and participants at the rally. The messages were varied. A white shirt with MAISUG printed in red was given to those who registered to the forum and rally, along with an orange wrist ribbon for the media and green for the participants.
If one statement shirt costs 100 pesos, 5,000 shirts would have cost half a million pesos.
Dabawenyos raise their lit candles during the “candlelight prayer rally” on Sunday, January 28, 2024 against moves to amend the 1987 Constitution. MindaNews photo by MANMAN DEJETO
Days before the rally, various volunteers announced through Facebook posts that they would print shirts onsite, for free. This is similar to what happened in 2015 when Dabawenyos were urging then mayor Duterte to run for President.
Tables were set up in areas like Roxas Avenue and around City Hall, along San Pedro Street.
But most of the shirts worn by forum and rally participants with statements printed on them, were new.
Other statement shirts either worn or worn over what they wore to the forum or rally, had these messages: “Dabawenyos are not for sale.”
Former Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez wore a shirt that says “Mindanaoans are not for sale.”
There were also shirts against the International Criminal Court (ICC). “ICC out,” according to the shirts.
The ICC is investigating the alleged crimes against humanity in Duterte’s ‘war on drugs’ campaign from November 1, 2011 to March 16, 2019 when the Philippines was a state party to the Rome Statute. The investigation includes the killings in Davao City.
Duterte was Vice Mayor from 2010 to 2013 and Mayor for a seventh term (2013 to 2016) before assuming the presidency on June 30, 2016. He stepped down on June 30, 2022. His daughter Sara was city mayor from 2010 to 2013 and 2016 until 2022. She assumed the post of Vice President on June 30, 2022. (Carolyn O. Arguillas with reports from Manman Dejeto, Yas Ocampo and Ian Carl Espinosa / MindaNews)
