Alvarez swears in 4,500 Bataan local officials as new PDP-Laban members

House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez. (Photo by NOY oy Morcoso / INQUIRER.net

BALANGA CITY – Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez urged 4,500 local officials of Bataan, who joined administration party PDP-Laban, to support the push for federalism, after he swore them in at a Thursday gathering.

Alvarez said the new members, led by Bataan Gov. Albert Raymond Garcia, Rep. Geraldine Roman (First District) and Rep. Jose Enrique Garcia III (Second District), made the right decision to join a party that promotes “power, money and opportunity.”

“In a unitary form of government, we have to beg for funds from the national government. Under the federal system, we will control wealth [and] our natural resources,” Alvarez assured municipal mayors, vice mayors, barangay (village) captains and barangay councilmen.

Alvarez claimed that the federal system will do away with political dynasties, and attacked critics who believe a new bureaucracy will keep President Duterte in power.

Alvarez also criticized the United States for a supposed intelligence report that describes President Duterte as a threat to democracy. “Those who do nothing are the real threats to democracy,” he said./ac