Go on 2019 plan: I’ll just be your ‘janitor’

DAVAO CITY — Special Assistant to the President Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go on Thursday maintained he was not running for senator in next year’s elections even as he called on supporters to take down billboards and tarps egging him on to run and use the money instead to buy construction materials for the homeless.

At the mass oathtaking of over 2,000 village officials as members of Hugpong ng Pagbabago party in Pantukan town, Compostela Valley, Go said he would remain as President Rodrigo Duterte’s most trusted aide.

“I’m not interested in running. There are many jealous persons in politics,” Go told the crowd at the Compostela Valley provincial gymnasium, taking a swipe at opposition Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, a staunch critic of the President.

While he thanked his supporters for the billboards urging him to run for senator, Go said he was more interested in remaining as “your janitor” than becoming a legislator.

The presidential aide also assailed lawyer Edwin Lacierda and other critics for accusing him of being an “epal,” slang for attention-seeker, for being on the controversial billboards.

Go said he never dreamed of becoming a politician, much less become an epal.

“People in Davao know that I never put my name in any government project in line with my principal’s abhorrence of being an epal. It’s you, Lacierda and your ilk, who had been known to trumpet projects,” Go said. —Frinston Lim