Marcoleta quits race to Senate

House Deputy Speaker and Sagip Partylist Rep. Rodante Marcoleta. Image from the House of Representatives

MANILA, Philippines — House Deputy Speaker Rodante Marcoleta, one of the lawmakers that led opposition to ABS-CBN’s franchise renewal, has decided to withdraw his senatorial bid.

This came 12 days before the May 9 elections.

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Commissioner George Garcia confirmed the information Wednesday. He also explained that all votes cast for Marcoleta on May 9 will be considered stray.

Marcoleta in a statement cited poor showing in surveys as the reason behind his decision to quit the senatorial race.

Marcoleta was running under the UniTeam slate of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Inday Sara Duterte-Carpio and the PDP-Laban party.

“The fighter in me should be brave enough to read the writings on the wall. Let’s call spade a spade,” he said.

Marcoleta thanked President Rodrigo Duterte for encouraging him to run for senator. He also thanked the UniTeam, PDP-Laban, and the People’s Reform Party for including him in their senatorial list.

“I will be indebted forever to several people who chipped in their resources, time, and tons of hardworking into my memorable campaign,” he said.

“I thank the hundreds of parallel support groups and thousands of volunteers who believed in my advocacies and the measures that must be pursued for the common good. I just hope that they will all be so kind and accommodating enough to understand,” he added.

Marcoleta vowed to continue supporting the Marcos-Duterte tandem for the May 9 elections.

“The BBM-Sara tandem exemplifies the politics of unity and working together, despite the divergent political persuasions, for the sake of the motherland—an element that is conspicuously absent in other teams,” Marcoleta said.

Based on the latest Pulse Asia survey released on April 6, Marcoleta falls within the 24th to 30th rank among senatorial candidates.

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KGA