100,000 guests expected at Duterte’s party

DAVAO CITY – A crowd of about 100,000 is expected to attend the thanksgiving party for incoming president Rodrigo Duterte at the Davao Crocodile Park here on June 4.

Some 2,000 Philippine National Police (PNP) personnel will be posted at the venue and will join other security personnel from the Armed Forces of the Philippines and those hired by the event’s host, Davao Crocodile Park owner Philip Dizon, according to Davao City Police Office spokesperson Chief Insp. Milgrace Driz.

Dizon was one of the major supporters of Duterte during the campaign.

“We ask for the cooperation of the community and the attendees. We’re calling for pro-active measures to secure the event,” said Driz.

The thanksgiving event will start at 8 p.m. and will have a party-like atmosphere as this city bids farewell to a mayor, who had served it for more than two decades, and will become the 16th president of the country on June 30.

“Everybody will be welcome to come to the event. But as far as we’re concerned, only (Duterte) will be the VIP,” Driz said.

Bands and singers, from this city, Manila and other parts of the country, are expected to provide entertainment, while food stalls will also be set up around the venue.

And with the expected huge turnout, Driz enjoined those, who plan to join the thanksgiving party, to come early.

“We will be opening the gates at 8 a.m. Considering that we have estimated that 100,000 would attend and it would take five seconds to search each of them, we really need them to come early,” she said.

The thanksgiving party on June 4 is expected to top the huge crowd that gathered at the same venue last May 7, which came for Duterte’s miting de avance for the city before the May 9 polls. That event was also planned to set a world record for the simultaneous singing of the national anthem, but this did not fall through because the projected attendance of 300,000 was not reached as many had to be turned away from the park.

Also last May 7, in Manila, Duterte drew over 500,000 at the Rizal Park or Luneta for another miting de avance, a pre-cursor to his overwhelming victory in the polls two days later.

“That’s why with that number of attendees on June 4, we are asking that the people be vigilant and alert. Immediately report anything suspicious para matawag agad at ma-imbestigahan (so that the suspicious persons could be called and investigated),” Driz said.

Driz also addressed a concern raised by the local media about the possibility that smoking could go unabated during the party given its magnitude.

“We will be asking the organizers, particularly the Dizons, to be on the lookout for violators,” she said.

The Davao Crocodile Park is a popular tourist destination in this city. It is located in a vast compound called Riverfront Corporate City on the Diversion Road in Barangay Ma-a.

It features various exotic animals such as monkeys, snakes, birds, bearcats, tigers, various type of reptiles that include its top attraction, crocodiles. It also showcases the rich flora and fauna of the city.