Bill Gates calls off meeting with P-Noy
Billionaire and tech giant Microsoft Corp. founder William Gates –
through his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation – had sought a meeting
with President Aquino but later withdrew it for still unknown reasons, a
Palace official disclosed yesterday.
“I can tell you that the foundation sent a request for a courtesy cal l
sometime in November 2014 but it was withdrawn,” deputy presidential
spokesperson Abigail Valte told a news briefing in Malacañang.“So it’s not that he was ignored or anything. Also, I’m trying to get verification about Mr. Gates being here in the country,” she added, debunking views that Gates was not interested at all in meeting
The immigration bureau has confirmed Gates’ arrival in the country and
the Laguna-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has also
issued an official statement thanking Gates and his wife Melinda for
visiting the facility Wednesday.
Valte said the Palace was not entirely clueless about Gates’ arrival, which they got through media.“The reports have been replete with sources and the chopper was supposedly sighted somewhere in IRRI. What we know is that the foundation supports the research of IRRI on golden rice, the hybrid that is supposedly infused with beta-carotene and other vitamins.”
The Palace spokesperson admitted she was not well versed on the Gates’ foundation and its support for rice research.
“I’m not quite sure. I don’t have a lot of information on the genetically modified crop. What I’m telling you is the information that I found on the website of the foundation because they have been pretty open about their support for the IRRI,” Valte told journalists.
Meanwhile, a 32-year-old Bulgarian, jailed by Paraguayan authorities in 2011 for allegedly stealing thousands of dollars from the accounts of Gates, was nabbed in Quezon City on Thursday night while using different counterfeit bank cards.
Konstantin Simeonov Kavrakov, was arrested in the act of withdrawing money using different counterfeit cards at the ATM machine of the PSBank branch at the corner of Scout Reyes Street in Barangay Paligsahan, Quezon Avenue. – With Cecille Suerte Felipe
