MMDA Spox Pialago admits working with opposition in 2016 and explains why she decides to side with President Duterte

Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Spokesperson Celine Pialago shared her journey on how she worked with the opposition in 2016 elections then suddenly jumped ship when she met President Rodrigo Duterte.

According to her, she wanted to try political campaigning as she wanted to change career that’s why he chose to become one of the Media Relations Officers of one of the opposition candidates in 2016.

However, when Pialago met Duterte in Davao City to apply for a job she was surprised about the personality of the latter, saying that good things that the people tell about the President are true.

Pialago admitted that she’s regretting that she supported the wrong candidate in the 2016 election.

She also said that all the things that were thrown by anti-Duterte Facebook pages against the President are not true.

The Spokesperson of MMDA posted the lengthy story after some netizens posted her old campaign ID showing that she was a supporter of a rival of President Duterte during the presidential elections.

You can read her whole post below:

It’s time to publicly share my journey why I went from one side to now serving our President Rodrigo Duterte. I believe it is my responsibility to publicly open and be transparent about my history.

I was only 24 years old going 25 when I worked as one of the oppositions’ Media Relations Officers in the last 2016 elections.

From news reporting, beauty pageants and showbiz, I went to a totally new thing, which is political campaigning. All I wanted was to go back to non-entertainment media since my plans for showbiz fell through.

When I applied for a job in Davao, a week after the 2016 elections, I never thought I would cross paths with our President Duterte. I was going to pass my resume to anybody, taking chances and hoping for the best.

But it was the President I met. 

It’s true what they say, that you can’t know a person until you meet them in person.

And my God, I was surprised. President Duterte was jovial. He will not judge you nor act rudely towards you just because you are from a different political party.

He does not discriminate who he speaks to or prefers some over others. He treats everyone he speaks to with equal respect.

It was the first time I spoke with a President of the Philippines, and President Duterte acted like he was my dad. ☺️ He was personable, down to earth and simple.

Four hours stretched into the wee hours of the morning, but our enthusiasm was never doused. All of us enjoyed every minute of it. President Duterte at that time said it’s more important for government employees to be loyal to the people than to him.

It was there I realized why 16 million Filipinos voted for him.

I feel sad that I wasn’t given an opportunity to be his supporter for the 2016 elections. 

All those anti-government social media pages have it wrong about our President.

I hope these pages will stop being so desperate in trying to bring down people such as myself and other supporters of President Duterte.

They even dug up my old campaign ID just to portray me as a “balimbing” or political opportunist.That time I had not yet found my place or my conviction.

Today, I am sure.

I’m here not to please certain people, I’m here to serve the public. I have no secrets to hide. So you anti-government pages, stop encouraging others to oppose the government for the sake of opposing or for your agenda. Stop using political colors as pretentious symbols of loyalty to our country; they are actual colors of vested interests.

I am happy and proud to be part of this administration. You can expect that I will continue delivering this level of service to the best of my abilities.

So help me God. 

 

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