Duterte to campaign for PDP-Laban bets starting Mar. 25, says Cusi

President Duterte during the PDP-Laban national assembly in Pampanga. PRESIDENTIAL PHOTOS

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte will start campaigning for PDP-Laban national and local candidates on March 25, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, president of the party’s faction aligned with Duterte, said Friday.

“As Chairman of the PDP Laban, President Duterte will be taking a more proactive role to promote its 6,592 national and local candidates these coming weeks of the campaign period,” Cusi said in a statement.

“The President told us that he will be giving his full support to all our candidates in this year’s elections. Once elected, we will continue all the programs and advocacies of President Duterte from the national to the local level,” he added.

Cusi said the PDP-Laban party will also formally launch its 11-point “agenda for continuity” in a proclamation rally. He said the political party is for the “true continuity” of Duterte’s programs and advocacies.

The party’s 11-point agenda covers the fight against corruption, eradication of poverty, advancement of peace and order, ending the pandemic, defeating communist terrorism, sustaining economic growth, and generation of jobs.

It also includes efforts to strengthen national defense and foreign relations, educational reforms, decentralization and local government empowerment, and Charter change and federalism.

The ruling PDP-Laban is currently divided into two factions seeking recognition from the Commission on Elections: One wing is led by Duterte and Cusi, and the other is being led by Senators Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III and Manny Pacquiao.

Pacquiao is running for president, but under the Probinsya Muna Development Initiative.

Meanwhile, the faction led by Duterte and Cusi earlier fielded Senators Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa and Christopher “Bong” Go for the presidential race, but both eventually withdrew their candidacies. As a result, the PDP-Laban party has no presidential and vice presidential bets of its own.

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