Saguisag: Duterte has to listen not only from Marcoses

Former Senator Rene Saguisag on Saturday said that President Rodrigo Duterte should not listen only to the Marcos family.

His statement came amid protests against the burial of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

"I wish Digs (Duterte) well, for that is wishing the Motherland well. But he has to listen not only from the Marcosses," Saguisag said in an email to GMA News.

"The country is not Davao City writ large," the former senator added.

Saguisag also recalled that he and Duterte's mother, Soledad Duterte, took to the streets of Davao City after the assassination of former senator Benigno Aquino Jr.

"I marched with Dig's ma in Davao after Ninoy was salvaged," the senator said in the email before the San Beda Law School alumni homecoming on Saturday.

Saguisag said that he and the President met during an alumni homecoming of San Beda Law School when he was the dean from 1971-72.

"I last met him in a similar occasion (Beda Law homecoming) a decade or so ago, in Club Filipino. We briefly chatted. Amiably," he said.

Duterte is expected to attend the alumni homecoming on Saturday night in Taguig City.

"I have better things to do tonight. No desire to risk being a KJ (killjoy). I wonder whether Lei is going," Saguisag said.

The former senator did not clarify if he was referring to Sen. Leila de Lima, who also finished Bachelor of Laws at San Beda College.

De Lima has been accused by Duterte of being involve in the alleged drug trade in the New Bilibid Prison.

Saguisag also mentioned Vice President Leni Robredo in his email, saying she was his student in San Beda' graduate school of law in 2013.

Robredo is against the burial of Marcos at the heroes' cemetery. —report from JP Soriano/John Ted Cordero/ALG, GMA News