WHILE the administration has yet to choose its presidential bet for the 2022 national elections, President Duterte seems to have already picked his vice presidential bet in House majority leader Martin Romualdez.
The President has been making his preference known in recent private meetings with lawmakers, the latest of which happened during the signing of the 2021 General Appropriations Act in Malacañang last December 28.
Romualdez was not immediately available for comment.
ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Eric Yap, chair of the House committee on appropriations, said he was among those who heard the President endorsing Romualdez at the signing ceremony.
“Yes, I heard it from the president’s mouth,” said Yap, a close friend of the President’s son Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte, who chairs the powerful House committee on accounts which handles the budget of the Lower House.
Aside from Yap, also present in the event were Senate President Vicente Sotto III, Senate majority leader Juan Miguel Zubiri, Sen. Christopher Go, deputy speaker Abraham Tolentino and House minority leader Stephen Paduano.
