Says the original plan was to adopt Pres. Duterte as his VP, but that changed with PRRD’s decision not to run anymore
(Eagle News) – Former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., filed his certificate of candidacy to run as president for next year’s elections, on Wednesday, Oct. 6, a day after announcing his bid to run for the top post.
Marcos Jr., filed his CoC with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) accompanied by his wife, Liza Marcos.
“As you have witnessed, I just filed my certificate of candidacy for president just now,” he said.
“So I guess that makes it all official.”
He said that he would be running under the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP).
Marcos said he has no running-mate for now under the PFP.
He said that the “original plan was for us to adopt PRRD for our vice-presidential candidate,” referring to President Rodrigo Duterte
But he said that what happened last Saturday, Oct. 2 — the withdrawal from the 2022 vice-presidential race by President Duterte — had changed everything.
When asked if he would consider Senator Christopher “Bong” Go, the PDP-Laban’s VP bet, as his running-mate, he said “that is possible.”
This developed as the ruling PDP-Laban party has yet to announce who its standard bearer will be.
Marcos Jr., who ran as vice-presidential candidate in 2016 but narrowly lost to Leni Robredo, earlier said that he had been waiting for the decision of what he called the “Davao group” on the matter, apparently referring to the Dutertes.
President Duterte had already withdrawn his vice-presidential bid and announced his plan to retire after his term in June 2022 on Saturday, Oct. 2.
Marcos said he hoped to bring “a unifying leadership” in the Philippines.
“I know that it’s this manner of unifying leadership that can lead us through this crisis, get our people safely back to work for all of us to begin to live our lives once again,” he said on Tuesday, Oct. 5, when he announced his presidential bid.
The political divide in the country marked by both pro and anti-Marcos sentiments had been entrenched for decades, and became even wider after the ouster of the Marcoses in the 1986 and the rise into power of former President Corazon Aquino.
(Eagle News Service)
