PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has apologized to Filipino actress and multimedia personality Kris Aquino after her father, the late senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr., was dragged into the Seoul kiss controversy.
Duterte issued the apology through his closest aide, Special Assistant to the President Christopher Lawrence Go, who reached out to Aquino through a text message.
"I texted her (Aquino), telling her that we (Duterte and I) are sorry for the incident," Go said in an interview with Palace reporters.
"We all agreed to put this issue to rest out of respect for all our fellow Filipinos. I believe that politics should not divide us. Let's just help each other rather than be divided for the country's development," he added.
Aquino, the youngest daughter of the slain senator and the late President Corazon Aquino, lashed out Tuesday, June 5, at dancer-turned-government-official, Communications Assistant Secretary Margaux "Mocha" Uson, for disrespecting her family.
Uson, on her Facebook page "Mocha Uson Blog," uploaded Sunday, June 3, a video of the late senator, who was seen receiving a kiss from two women on board a plane before he was assassinated on August 21, 1983.
The Communications official posted the video after Duterte earned criticisms for asking a married Filipino woman to kiss him on the lips during his meeting with the Filipino community in Seoul, South Korea.
Aquino went live on Facebook and Instagram to call out Uson for comparing Duterte's controversial kiss to a footage of her late father's video being kissed by two female fans on the airplane.
At the press conference, Go admitted that the President could not control Uson, since she already knows what she is doing.
But he assured that Uson also expressed willingness to apologize to Aquino.
"We understand the emotions of both sides since both leaders, President Duterte and former Senator Benigno Aquino, are well-respected and well-loved," Duterte's aide said.
"I told Mocha, understand Kris Aquino's emotions. She was hurt because she remembered the death of her parents. She was unable to hug her father before he died. She (Uson) will apologize, maybe (a public apology)," he added. (SunStar Philippines)