Is Mayor Sara Duterte Substituting Sen. Bato dela Rosa?
SARA DUTERTE – Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said that Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio is firm that she will not run under PDP-Laban party.
Now that the filing of candidacy period is over, the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) is on the process of determining nuisance candidates or those who do not really intend to run for public office. There are also possible substitutions.
A total of 97 candidacies for presidency were filed to the poll body. One of those who filed his COC for president is Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa. Undeniably, his move came as a surprise to a lot of people.
According to the Senator, he received a call at 3:00 p.m. last October 8, 2021 telling him to file for a presidential bid in Election 2022 and be the standard bearer of their party, the PDP-Laban Cusi wing. It was two (2) hours before the closing of the filing period and the former Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief made it.
However, as news about his filing abruptly circulated on social media, it sparked speculations that he is just a placeholder and would be replaced. There are speculations that Mayor Sara Duterte will replace him.
Recently, PDP-Laban member Energy Sec. Alfonso Cusi spoke about it. Based on a report on ABS-CBN News, speaking at ANC, the Energy Secretary stressed that Mayor Sara Duterte made it clear that she has no intention to run under their political party so they are not considering her to substitute the Senator.
According to Cusi, they cannot do it since the Mayor herself does not want to run under PDP-Laban. He admitted that their original plan was not pushed through as they initially planned for Senator Christopher “Bong” Go to be the party’s standard-bearer and Pres. Rodrigo Roa Duterte to run for vice president.
However, the 76-year-old Chie Executive changed his decision and it was Go who filed his COC for vice president under PDP-Laban. According to the Chief Executive, he wants to retire from politics as it is what the people wants. He plans to just go home to Davao City and prepare his defense to the investigation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) regarding the drug war in the Philippines.
When asked if they will really field the Dela Rosa-Go tandem in the Elections 2022, Cusi said that “anything is possible at this time”.
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