Rama continues seeking audience with president

Shock. This was what former Cebu City mayor Michael Rama said he felt when President Rodrigo Duterte mentioning his name for the second time as an alleged drug protector.

In a press conference yesterday, he said he was stunned that after exerting all effort to reach out to the president so he can clear his name, Duterte again made the allegation.

He said that after the first announcement, he went to the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency national office asking for evidence or documents that would prove that he was a drug protector.

PDEA, he said, could not provide one. He said he also sought help from Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Dino for an appointment with Duterte so he can set the matter straight.

To recall, Rama was among the alleged narcopolitician Duterte named on August 6, 2016. Last Friday, Duterte again mentioned his name along with that of Iloilo City Mayor Jed Mabilog

In a press conference yesterday, he said that after being named for the second time, Rama said he again sought out Dino for assistance as well as Presidential Adviser on Legislative Affairs Adelino Sitoy, also the head of the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office for him to finally meet the president.

Rama went to Malacañang a few weeks ago and spoke with House of Representatives Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on his intent to meet the Duterte so he can clear his name.

With his past efforts yielding no response, he hoped that this time around the president would give him the opportunity to be heard and that Duterte would be willing to listen to his side. He said he is puzzled but would not stop knocking on the president’s door.

"I don't know if there a knob which has not yet opened (but) I'm not going to stop…. In the same pronouncement…he made mention ‘sasalubongin ko kayo harap-harapan’. How can (we meet) if the door (is not) open?" he told reporters yesterday.

He again reiterated his innocence, that he was never involved in illegal drugs, saying, “My conscience is clear”.

Rama said that aside from him being named again as an alleged drug protector, he was “surprised” that Duterte said he was a governor.

"The Rama governor has been dead long time ago," he said, referring to his uncle, former Cebu governor Osmundo Rama.