DAVAO CITY – After pushing him to run for vice president in next year’s polls, President Rodrigo Duterte’s own political party PDP-Laban now wants him to seek a senate seat.
Duterte has
backed out from the vice presidential race following a public outcry and
criticisms, but PDP-Laban has hatched a new plan and that is for the president
to run in the Senate instead.
The push for
the ageing Duterte to run for senator has shocked the public anew and raising
suspicion that his allies in Congress wanted to prolong their hold on the
former Davao City mayor to ensure the party’s political clout.
Energy
Secretary Alfonso Cusi, of the PDP-Laban, is among those who is pushing Duterte
to run for the Senate instead of retiring, saying his victory will help push
legislative reforms.
“If the
President will not really run as vice president because he has already decided
that he does not want to run and he doesn’t want to break his own words, I said
- Okay, then just run as senator’ so that you can bring change in the Senate,”
Cusi said.
Duterte has
pushed for Bong Go, his long-time aide-turned-senator, to run for vice
president with Bato dela Rosa, also a senator and former national police chief,
as president under the PDP-Laban.
He previously
told his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte to run for president with Go
as her running mate, but Sara rejected the offer and said she will seek
re-election.
Duterte’s political plan is largely seen as a
strategy to avoid prosecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on his
bloody drug war that had killed thousands of drug suspects. The ICC is currently
investigating the extrajudicial killings in the country. (Mindanao Examiner)
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