Malacañang: “So far, ganoon pa rin po ang stand ni Pangulo.”
MALACAÑANG — With more than two months left before the 2022 elections, the Palace said that President Rodrigo Duterte is still not endorsing any presidential candidate at this time.
Echoing the President’s earlier pronouncement, Cabinet Secretary and acting Presidential Spokesperson Karlo Nograles said that President Duterte isn’t yet supporting any presidential candidate “unless there is a compelling reason” for him to do so.
“So far, ganoon pa rin po ang stand ni Pangulo,” Nograles said in a virtual Palace briefing last February 18.
Earlier, the President endorsed the presidential bid of his long-time aide, Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, but the latter withdrew from the presidential race.
So far, the President has endorsed the senatorial bids of former Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, former senator JV Ejercito, former Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) chairperson Greco Belgica, and former chief presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo.
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Nograles also said that the President isn’t expected to physically campaign for his endorsed senatorial candidates as it isn’t in his calendar.
Meanwhile, former Agrarian Reform secretary John Castriciones said on Friday that the President may eventually endorse the candidacy of Manila Mayor Isko Moreno because most of the members of the Mayor Rodrigo Roa Duterte National Executive Coordinating Committee (MRRDNECC) were supporting the Manila mayor for the 2022 elections.
“There’s a big possibility that the President will endorse Isko Moreno. But we respect the pronouncement of the President,” Castriciones said in a press conference.
Moreno previously thanked the supporters and political allies of the President for backing his presidential bid in the upcoming May 2022 national and local elections.
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