Incoming Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) secretary Martin Andanar said Wednesday Filipinos should expect a very brief encounter between incoming President Rodrigo R. Duterte and outgoing President Aquino on June 30.
Incoming presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said that Vice President-elect Leni Robredo is not among the invited guests but added that they are open to the possibility that there might changes in the program.
He said he has no knowledge whether the president will be meeting with Robredo after the inauguration. “There is nothing definite,” he said.
Andanar told a press conference on Wednesday that Aquino will welcome Duterte at the reception area where the former will hand the guestbook to Duterte for signing. Both of them will then step out of the palace to offer the outgoing president a departure honors.
The event will start at 10 a.m. but Duterte will be sworn in at 12 noon at the Rizal Hall of the Malacañang Palace.
He is expected to deliver his message shortly after.
He said that there are two people who are working on his speech which is now being revised but he noted that the president “has full editorial control” on the speech, which will be in English, Tagalog, and possibly may include some Cebuano words.
Andanar said they are not discounting the possibility that Duterte may opt to deliver an extemporaneous message to the Filipino people.
“What was reported to me was that we are writing the speech that should go through that teleprompter, but he may read or memorize his message… There is tendency that he will not follow any written speech and just go with the flow. Our president can very well deliver an extemporaneous speech on any issue he will talk about,” he said.
After his message, Duterte will administer the mass oath taking of his cabinet members and meet members of the diplomatic community. (Antonio Colina)