MANILA – Popular TV host and actress Kris Aquino is willing to campaign for Special Assistant to the President (SAP) Christopher Lawrence "Bong" Go if he decides to run for senator in the 2019 mid-term elections.
Go said Aquino mentioned this in her text message to the former while conveying her dismay at Communications Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson’s post on social media criticizing the actress’ father, the late former senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino.
“You know I will even campaign for you because I believe in you, but why leave the President? Why leave Malacanang? Maybe a snake will take your position,” Kris told Go in a text message on June 5 while he and his boss, President Rodrigo Duterte, were on a plane bound for Manila from Seoul, South Korea.
The youngest sister of former President Benigno Aquino III said she considers Go as her friend.
“We have been friends and my heart wants to believe you still have a soft spot for me. I will understand if you snub me because who am I anyway, but my heart was hurt by what Mocha did,” Aquino said in her message to Go, which the presidential aide read out in a press conference on June 6 (Wednesday).
In response, Go thanked the former Presidential sister for the support but thumbed down the idea of seeking a Senate seat amid growing clamor for him to run.
“Ma’am Kris I’m not a candidate but thank you so much for your trust and your faith to President Duterte,” Go replied to Aquino.
Go said Duterte has instructed him to apologize to Kris Aquino for Uson’s post comparing the late senator being kissed by two women to President Rodrigo Duterte who kissed a Filipina on the lips in a recent gathering of Filipino community in Seoul, South Korea.
He said Uson also agreed to apologize to Aquino, whose mother, Cory Aquino, served as the country’s first female president from 1986 to 1992.
Respectful to women
Meanwhile, Go explained that there was no malice in the President’s gesture to solicit a kiss from one of two women whom he called on stage to receive copies of a book after giving a long speech before over 2,000 Filipinos.
“The President has high respect for women,” Go, Duterte’s most trusted aide since he was mayor of Davao City, said.
“I do not do it in public if there is malice,” Duterte said in a media interview after he arrived from a fruitful trip to South Korea on Wednesday.
“I never felt any sensation if that is what you mean. I can only generate an emotion if a kiss a woman I love. Any other stranger is pure showbiz,” the President added.
No malice
Bea Kim, one of the nearly 2,000 Filipinos present during the meeting with the President, earlier said there was no malice in the President’s gesture.
“The kiss was just like a twist to entertain the audience. It had no meaning. For him and for me, it had no meaning,” she said.
Duterte said he will resign if all women will sign a petition for him to resign amid public uproar ignited by the President’s controversial kiss. (PNA)
