Atienza drops Manila mayoral bid, seeks House return as Buhay nominee

House Senior Minority Leader Lito Atienza on Wednesday dropped his Manila mayoral bid and instead filed his certificates of nomination and acceptance (CONA) as first nominee of the Buhay party-list.

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Atienza was elected as Manila mayor in 1998, and was reelected in 2001 and 2004. He became Buhay representative in 2016.

Atienza led the filing of the certificates of nomination and acceptance (CONA) of Buhay party-list nominees on Wednesday.

In an interview before he filed Buhay’s CONA at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) main office in Intramuros, Atienza said Buhay is determined to stop the restoration of death penalty in the country.

“Yung mga panukalang katulad ng death penalty, ay aming hahadlangan,” Atienza said.

(We will block the restoration of the death penalty).

“Hindi makakatulong yung patay diyan, patay doon. Ang kailangan natin ay good effective government,” he added.

(Deaths here and there will not help. What we need now is good effective government).

According to Atienza, strengthening the country’s judicial system will help solve the issue of criminality in the country.

“Kailangan pag-igihan natin ang ating judicial system. Yung makukulong yung mga masasamang tao, makukulong yung magnanakaw, at madadala ang kriminal,” he said.  /muf

(We need to strengthen the judicial system. We need to put criminals behind bars).