Roque drops Senate bid, to run as party-list rep in 2019

Former Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque speaks to reporters in Malacanang on Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. INQUIRER.NET / NESTOR CORRALES

Former Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque will run as a party list representative in the 2019 midterm elections and not as senator, he announced Monday.

“I am taking the advice of the President. While it was always my intention to file a COC for the position of Senate, I will actually file tomorrow a certificate of nomination for party list under Luntiang Pilipinas party-list which is an environmental group,” Roque told Malacanang reporters.

“I will be the first nominee and I will have Ms. Ciara Sotto as my second nominee,” he added.

Ciara is the daughter of Senate President Vicente Sotto III, an ally of the President.

Roque said he had a “conversation with President Rodrigo Duterte in Malacanang on Sunday.

After his talk with the President, he said “the best option right now is to go back to Congress which really was one of my options.”

Roque admitted that the Senate race was tight.

“Masikip talaga ang Senado. We have 7 reelectionists and 5 come-backing senators in addition to the new faces,” he said.

He acknowledged that financing his campaign would be a hindrance.

“And finance as I said has always been a hindrance,” he said.

His low survey ratings was also a factor, he added.

“Definitely. I knew that it will be a very difficult climb to Senate if I were to persist. My problem, too, was we had three consecutive surveys and only the awareness was increasing not the conversion. So it was really a hard reality to accept that perhaps we need to do more to convince the people that we are worthy for the Senate,” he said.

The fomer human rights lawyer explained his decision to run as a party-list representative.

“And of course the choice of running for an environmental party list was influenced largely by developments that happened of course in Itogon as well as events that happened in Mactan and the President’s unrelenting desire to protect the environment,” he said.

“If you recall, the President has repeatedly said that he wants open pit mining closed and this will be the advocacy that we will be pushing in Congress,” he added.

He was initially widely believed to run for senator with Duterte even endorsing him in his public speeches.

But Duterte recently said in a military event that Roque won’t win a Senate seat because the soldiers don’t like him.

The president then offered Roque to be his press secretary.

“Well actually I was very much surprised but flattered when the offer came. But I was surprised because I thought it was clear to both of us that I was running in this year’s elections,” he said.

“And I was surprised that the offer came for press secretary, I do not know if it is still the best option. I don’t know what will happen, but I do know it came as by way of recommendation from some senators in the Senate who wanted to give the PCOO a zero budget,” he added. /cbb