PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Friday insisted his visit to Russia was no junket and defended his decision tagging along retired police officers, soldiers and their wives, saying he would have paid for the whole plane anyway.
“When I was in Moscow, Russia, it was reported that Marawi was being attacked. I was criticized because my trip was a junket,’ according to [former] President Ramos,” Duterte said in a speech at Camp Quintin Merecido in Davao City.
“It was not. We got about P9 billion of ready-made transactions immediately.”
Even Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon were with him on the trip to talk about an arms deal with Russia.
But Duterte insisted that he brought along soon-to-retire police and military officials “as gratitude for their service.”
“Sabi ko you come with me because ‘yan lang din ang paraan na mapakita ko sa inyo na this is also a nation who has the gratitude for you, sumama kayo. Isama n’yo ‘yung asawa ninyo, ipasyal ko kayo,” Duterte said.
He said there had been no need to spend for their airfares because they hitched a ride on his chartered flight.
“You know, my payment for my plane, whether I am the lone passenger or I fill it with people, is the same,” Duterte claimed.
On May 26, Ramos slammed several government officials who, he said, had turned Duterte’s official visit to Russia into a junket.
Duterte had to cut short his trip to Russia after the Maute group attacked Marawi City on May 23.
Without naming names, Ramos said some government officials who had no role in the trip to Moscow and St. Petersburg joined the presidential delegation instead of manning their local posts.
Aside from Cabinet secretaries, Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, some members of the Senate and the House, as well as assistant secretaries and staff members also joined the presidential delegation to Russia.
Duterte’s common-law partner Honeylet Avanceña and his children Sebastian and Veronica also accompanied the chief executive on the trip.