Philippines president Fernando “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. faced criticism from his constituents over the weekend for using the state-funded presidential helicopter to fly over the traffic jam caused by a Coldplay concert Friday night (January 19) in order to attend the show himself.
According to the BBC, the show at the Philippine Arena — located in the Manila suburbs, about 40 minutes away from the presidential palace without traffic — drew a crowd of 40,000, intensifying the city’s famous gridlock. “We’ve seen some traffic, but I think you have the number one [traffic] in the world,” Coldplay frontman Chris Martin joked to fans during the band’s performance Friday, per The Guardian. (According to the 2023 TomTom Traffic Index, Manila’s metro area is, in fact, the slowest on earth.) Responding to critics like activist Renaldo Reyes, who called Marcos’s helicopter trip to the show “a grave insult to millions of Filipino commuters,” and Facebook user James Patrick Aristorenas, who wrote that “[u]sing official resources, like the presidential chopper, for personal and non-official activities is generally considered an abuse of power or misuse of government resources,” the president’s office issued a statement saying the “unforeseen traffic complications” created by the Coldplay show posed a security threat to Marcos and his wife, who joined him for the concert.
Read Next: Malaysian government threaten to use “kill switch” on Coldplay concert Bongbong Marcos is the son of former Filipino president Ferdinand Marcos Sr., who along with his wife Imelda (Bongbong’s mother) famously embezzled billions of taxpayer dollars for personal use.
Read more on thefader.com
Get the latest stars news and celebrity rumours with exclusive stories, photos, videos and interviews.
Breaking up, scandals, engagements, divorces, gossip – all you need to know about the private lives of your favorite celebs.
Get to know the latest showbiz news along with exclusive interviews and even more. All this is waiting for you on the main page 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! Who, where, when, with whom, how, why and for what!? Stay tuned to know first!
Just follow us daily and we will provide you with the current news from the life of famous stars and celebrities.
Owner: SNOWLAND s.r.o.
Registration certificate 06691200
Address:
Snowland s.r.o.
16200, Na okraji 381/41, Veleslavín, 162 00 Praha 6
Czech Republic
©2024. All rights reserved.