PRESIDENT Duterte has formally accepted his nomination as candidate for vice president of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) after he signed a “certificate of nomination acceptance, the faction headed by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said yesterday.
The signing, according to Melvin Matibag, means the President will definitely run for vice president in next year’s elections.
Matibag is secretary general of the faction while Cusi is president.
The other faction, headed by Senators Aquilino Pimentel III and Emmanuel Pacquiao, recently elected its own set of officers.
The Cusi camp has asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to declare the Pimentel group as “illegitimate” representatives of the ruling party.
The Comelec yesterday told the Pimentel camp to respond to the petition.
Cusi witnessed Duterte’s signing of the certificate of acceptance on September 17. The group yesterday released a photo of the President signing the document.
Cusi and Matibag said they are still discussing the party’s presidential candidate. The party nominated Sen. Christopher Go but he declined.
The other faction nominated Pacquiao as its standard bearer, and he accepted. The faction moved to allow him to choose his running mate.
There are persistent talks that Duterte will eventually withdraw to give way to the presidential candidacy of his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio. Sara has said only one Duterte should ran for a national post. She also recently said she would seek reelection next year.
Duterte, when he ran for president in 2016, was a substitute candidate.
Aside from Duterte, two have declared their intention to run for vice president — Senate President Vicente Sotto III and online personality and physician Willie Ong.
Sotto, who is running with Sen. Panfilo Lacson, said they are unfazed by the recent declaration of Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso to run for president, with Ong as running mate.
“We are focused only on our program and campaign. It does not matter to us on who else is running,” Sotto told reporters.
Lacson echoed this and said that early on, they agreed not to comment on other tandems as much as possible.
“Instead, we will continue to present ourselves worthy of the trust and support of our people, even after winning the election, if it comes to that. We have committed the last chapter of our long public service with nothing more in mind except to uplift the lives of our people and steer our country from self-pity to dignity,” Lacson added.
Former senator Antonio Trillanes IV said Vice President Leni Robredo, the opposition’s leader, must decide soon if she is going to run for president.
He said he and the Magdalo group pledges support to her as the “Tunay na Oposisyon” and reiterated he is ready to step in if there is a vacuum.
Trillanes said with only a week left before the start of the filing of the certificate of candidacy, Robredo has had enough time to think and arrive at a final decision.
The Robredo camp earlier this month said her decision will be out soon. Robredo has been saying her priority is to unite the opposition.
Trillanes, chairman of the Magdalo group, said the “true opposition” can count on his group if Robredo decides to tun for president. — With Gerard Naval and Ashzel Hachero
