MANILA — Special Assistant to the President (SAP) Bong Go on Wednesday clarified that his loyalty is to President Rodrigo Duterte and to the Filipino people.
Go made this clarification after he and President Rodrigo Duterte apologized last week to Kris Aquino for an incident that prompted her to publicly castigate Communications Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson for disrespecting her father, the late former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr.
“Personally, I’m not allowing myself to be used by ‘Dilawan’ (yellow),” Go said in a Facebook live interview with blogger Maharlika.
Go was referring to the previously ruling Liberal Party headed by Kris Aquino’s brother, former President Benigno ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III.
“My loyalty is to the nation and to President Duterte, you know that. I’m ready to die for Duterte. I don’t care what other people will say. I will not allow anybody to use me,” Go said.
He explained that it was Duterte who told him to issue an apology to Kris Aquino after Uson compared Ninoy Aquino being kissed by a woman before his assassination in 1983 to Duterte kissing a woman during a Filipino community gathering in South Korea last June 3.
“The President appreciated what Mocha did (defending President Duterte) but somebody was hurt because her (Kris) father is dead already. That’s why we said sorry, including me, the President and the office of Mocha,” Go said.
Go said Duterte also ordered him to apologize because the President wanted to end the spat between Kris Aquino and Uson.
He clarified that he did not ask Uson to issue an apology to Aquino.
“She just asked me on what to do. I told her it’s up to her if she will follow what the President has told me,” Go said.
Uson eventually declined to apologize, saying: “This is not about Kris Aquino. With all due respect to everyone involved, I decline to apologize for the truth.”
When asked if he will run for senator in 2019 elections, Go said he wanted to focus first on helping the President, particularly in uplifting the lives of the Filipino people.
“I am loyal to Duterte. I will swim and sink with the President. No politics, work first,” he said. (Jelly Musico/PNA)
