Congratulations to the 16th President of the Philippine Republic and the first president from Mindanao, President Rodrigo “Rody” Roa Duterte.
I was walking at Abreeza Mall with my daughter when I saw the Photographic Exhibition at the 2nd Floor Hallway. These are the photos of our very own President Rodrigo Rody Duterte Through the Years By Rene Lumawag.
I couldn’t help but to take photos and share it with you all just in case you have no time to drop by…
So below are the photos with caption written same as you can see in the displayed area.
Family Outing. Mt. Apo makes a perfect backdrop for Davao City’s First Family (L to R) Paolo, Sara, Elizabeth, Rody and Sebastian 1990s.
Young Once. Mayor Rodrigo Duterte delivers speech. Behind him are Councilor Corazon Malanyaon, 1st District Rep. Jesus Dureza and businessman Guillermo Torres. Malanyaon is completing her third term as Davao Oriental Governor and will serve as 1st district Rep. of the province while Dureza is returning as President Adviser on the Peace Process 1989.
Cofee Talk. Senator Juan Ponce Enrile and business man with Mayor Rodrigo Duterte at Waterfront Hotel in Davao City.
Thanksgiving. Davao Archbishop Antonio Mabutas and Rodrigo Duterte during the thanksgiving mass at the San Pedro Cathedral. The OIC Vice Mayor won as Mayor of Davao City in the election on January 18, 1988. He holds the record of winning in all ten electoral contests in his political life, including the Presidential election in 2016
Checking. Mayor Rodrigo Duterte checks an assault rifle in a firing range with Regional Police Chief Miguel Abaya and Metrodiscom chief Franco Calida Late 1980s
Handshake. Shaking the hand of his constituents is a typical greeting of Mayor Rodrigo Duterte in whatever situation, even during a medical-dental mission in one of the barangays in the city in the early 2000s
Ground Zero. Mayor Rodrigo Duterte checks the assault rifle of Senior Inspector Ronald dela Rosa (extreme left), chief of the City Mobile Group, after inspecting a crime scene in Barangay Tamugan in 1997 with Davao City Police Chief Isidro Lapena. Dela Rosa has been named chief of the Philippine National Police and Lapena as chief of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.
Lost Boy. Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, comforts four-year old Toperjay Quijano, who was lost in the crowd during a political event at the Rizal Park sometime 1990.
Mindanawon leaders Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and Senator Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel of the Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino (PDP-Laban) in the early 1990s. Duterte’s political career started in 1986 when he was named OIC Vice Mayor by Minister of Local Governments Pimentel. Duterte ran for President under the PDP-Laban headed by Pimentel’s son Senator Aquilino III or “Koko”, who is expected to be the next Senate President.
The Pimentels are from Cagayan de Oro City. Aquilino Jr. served as city mayor from 1980 to 1984.
Big Biker. Mayor Rodrigo Duterte mounts his Harley Davaidson bike as he leaves City Hall for a ride with his aides. Duterte was a member of On Any Sunday Riders. Early 2000s.
Mayor Rodrigo Duterte poses for posterity with Mayon Volcano as backdrop during a stopover in Legaspi City in the early 1990s when Duterte joined a group of big bikers in a tour from Davao City all the way to Aparri in Cagayan Valley.
Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and executive assistant Jaime Halili on board a ferry in the Visayas in the mid-1990s. Halili passed away in 1998 just as Duterte was on his first year as 1st District Representative to Congress. Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go succeeded Halili as Executive Assistant. Go is incoming Special Assistant to the President with general supervision over the Presidential Management Staff.
Peace Talk. OIC Mayor Zafiro Respicio and OIC Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte settle a pangayaw in the hinterlands of Davao City sometime in 1987.
Friends and Foes. Mayor Rodrigo Duterte chars with 1st District Rep. Prospero “Boy” Nograles. For a time, both were bitter political enemies but reconciled in 2015. Nograles supported Duterte’s bid for the Presidency.
Bayan Ko. Mayor Rodrigo Duterte leads the flag-raising ceremony on the Philippine Independence Centennial Celebration on June 12, 1998. The lone Mindanawon among five Presidential candidates was the only candidate who had a Philippine flag onstage during his campaign rallies and kissed it. “I am Rodrigo Duterte. I am Filipino and I love my country, the Philippines, It is the land of my birth, it is the home of my people.”
Check. Students watch as Mayor Rodrigo Duterte plays dama during the opening of the chess dama section of the Osmeña Park in Davao City on December 12, 2005
Veronica (Kitty) whispers to her father.
Meet the Original Source of the Photo- Mr. Rene Lumawag
Rene B. Lumawag, a self taught artist, was born in Panay in the Western Visayas Region on December 22, 1944. Rene started earning money from classmates and friends who would ask him to draw school projects and make cards for special occasions.
To improve his craft, Rene would go out on weekends to participate in on-the-spot painting of sceneries or sketching with the use of pencil or pen and ink.
He brought his first camera in 1979 – a Minolta 100X, single lens reflex full manual, with 45mm fixed lens, “to record my children as they grow.” Much later, he got 110 format camera and a Minolta 7S2 rangefinder.
His first photography teacher was “the manual of that P 1,800 SLR with 45mm fixed Rocor lens f/0.2.” He burned many candles just to fully understand basic camera operations.
Later on, he stopped participating in in-the-spot painting contests on weekend. Instead, he would bring the kids to good locations such as riverbanks and seashores to shoot the sunrise and sunset.
Before venturing into photojournalism, Rene, then a broadcaster at DXMC-UMBN, Davao City, was into weddings, birthdays and other special events. Before that, he was a radio deejay, and advertising painter.
Then he was employed in the Bureau of Public Highways in Davao del Sur district as a painter, ainting road signs for national roads. Then he was employed as chief of section of the Municipal Treasurer’s Office of Digos, Davao del Sur when he became civil service eligible (professional/first grader).
But in summer of 1985, a tragic landslide struck the gold rush site in Diwalwal in Monkayo, then part of Davao del Norte, burying hundreds of miners and workers in the allied industries.
Willi Vicoy, the veteran photojournalist from Reuters who spent years covering war in Vietnam, requested Rene to cover the disaster.
That tragedy captured on film by Rene, became his first stint in photojournalism. It gave him both national and international recognition as a photojournalist, as his photographs appeared on the front pages of the world’s newspapers, with his name properly credited by Reuters.
That same year, Rene joined the San Pedro Express for about two months, just as the weekly business paper shifted to daily. Later, he joined Ang Peryodiko Dabaw until it became Sun.Star Davao about six years later.Rene stayed with Sun.Star Davao until his retirement in August 2008.
He also served as a photo correspondent of the Philippine Daily Inquirer for a couple of years in the 90’s but passed it later to his son, Gene Boyd.
Two months after his retirement from Sun.Star Davao, Rene found himself signing a contract to Mindanao Times-Mindanao’s oldest community paper which is also based in Davao City – this time, as a lifestyle contributor and photo consultant.
Rene married Minerva “Minnie” Rodriguez, a nurse. They have five childred – Renne Belle (Dimple), Gene Boyd (Boboy), Melanie Ruth (an-an), April John (Skippy) and Tyron Kristofer, Gene Boyd was killed in Jolo, Sulu on November 12, 2004 while returning to the hotel from shooting the sunset at the pier.
