Roy Señeres denies backing out of presidential race for Duterte

Presidential aspirant and party-list representative Roy Señeres on Wednesday denied that he will back out from the race in favor of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, a fraternity brother.

In an interview on ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC), Señeres belied the report of the Philippine Daily Inquirer which said that two Supreme Court justices allegedly tried to pressure him to withdraw from the presidential race.

Citing a source, the INQUIRER said that Justices Jose Catral Mendoza and Bienvenido Reyes supposedly tried to coax Señeres to withdraw in favor of Duterte during a meeting of fraternity brothers last Friday in a restaurant in Pasay City.

READ: Two SC justices join Duterte bandwagon

Señeres, Mendoza, Reyes and Duterte are fraternity brothers in the Lex Talionis fraternity which was founded in the San Beda College of Law.

“It’s not true that in the sense that while I can confirm the two (Mendoza and Reyes) were present during the lunch meeting, they did not utter any word about the possibility of my giving in for Mayor Duterte. We were talking about other things,” Señeres said.

He said that the idea of backing out for Duterte was hatched by other lawyers and not by the Supreme Court justices.

“It was one of the two lawyers who brought it up, but the two justices just sat there,” the presidential aspirant told ANC.

In the INQUIRER report, Señeres was quoted as saying that he will not withdraw his certificate of candidacy.

“I declined. I said ‘I’m prolife, he (Duterte) is prodeath,” he said in the report.

The INQUIRER report also stated that former Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chair Sixto Brillantes Jr. and Duterte’s lead counsel Vitaliano Aguirre were present in the meeting.

Señeres served as a Philippine ambassador and labor attache to the United Arab Emirates. He said he is running to promote the welfare of overseas Filipino workers. AJH