(Eagle News) — When the President of the Philippines and members of the Senate sit together at a long table and have an intimate dinner, what exactly do they talk about?
Absolutely nothing that serious, at least according to the senators themselves.
“Nothing official,” Senator Tito Sotto said when asked what he and his colleagues discussed with President Rodrigo Duterte during the meal.
A picture of the rare gathering was uploaded by Senator JV Ejercito in his Twitter account on Tuesday night, drawing reactions ranging from amusement to confusion from netizens.
In the picture that has been shared more than a hundred times, a smiling Duterte wearing his standard black T-shirt with the Philippine flag in his left sleeve is seen seated in the middle of a long table, surrounded by smiling senators.
Apart from Sotto—who is also the majority floor leader–and Ejercito, seen in the photograph were Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, who reportedly organized the meeting; Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto; and Senators Manny Pacquiao, Joel Villanueva, Cynthia Villar, Alan Peter Cayetano, Grace Poe and Miguel Zubiri.
Also present were Senators Sherwin Gatchalian, Richard Gordon, Nancy Binay, Loren Legarda and Sonny Angara.
All attendees–who were all smiles in the photograph—are members of the majority bloc in the Senate.
Conspicuously absent were Senators Panfilo Lacson, Francis Escudero and Gringo Honasan; and members of the minority bloc, Senators Franklin Drilon, Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, Risa Hontiveros, Antonio Trillanes IV, and Francis Pangilinan.
Senator Leila de Lima is in detention in connection with drug cases filed against her.
“Much has been said about the dinner with President Duterte, but to be fair, he never asked us for anything. Conversations and mood (were) light,” Ejercito said in a Twitter post.
In an interview with reporters, Pimentel appeared to agree with his colleague, noting that “there was no agenda” set or talked about during the dinner.
“There was no expected output except that we get to have dinner with the President,” Pimentel said.
According to Ejercito, there was no discussion about the pending confirmation of Gina Lopez as secretary of the environment department, nor about any Senate inquiry, nor about martial law and the death penalty.
Duterte did, however, make a pitch about his war on drugs, and the much-talked about tax reform package.
He also even intimated to the senators there that the intelligence used against De Lima was not only supplied by local sources but also by international ones, Ejercito said.
Loyalty check?
The question remains, however.
Was the meeting a loyalty check?
A senator does not believe so.
“I don’t think so. Malayo,” Sotto said.
“We did not even talk about anything official,” he noted.
Even Aquino, a known critic of the Duterte administration, believes there was nothing wrong with the get-together.
“Normal naman yan sa kahit anong demokrasya…We dont think it’s anything untoward or anything different,” he told reporters.
Guess we can call it just that, then—the President’s rare night-out with friends.