Alan Cayetano says 2016 plans depend on survey results

Senator Alan Peter Cayetano. RYAN LEAGOGO/INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

TACLOBAN CITY—For Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, the decision to run for president in 2016 will depend on how he will fare in the surveys.

Cayetano said he would not pursue his presidential ambitions if survey results put him in the bottom.

“In June or July, I will look at the surveys, pulso ng tao (the pulse of the people),” said Cayetano, who was here on Friday to extend financial assistance to farmers under his PTK (Presyo, Trabaho, Kita, Kaayusan) program.

“If the people say I should run for president, I will not back down. But if they think there is another role for me, I will not run,” he said during an interview.

Latest survey results by Social Weather Stations showed Cayetano ranking ninth among potential presidential candidates, with a mere four percent rating.

The same survey results placed Vice President Jejomar Binay on the top of the list at 36 percent followed by Sen. Grace Poe at 31 percent.

Cayetano, whose second term will end in 2019, said his focus was to look into pressing issues affecting the country like the passage of Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).

Meanwhile, Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez admitted receiving offers to run for senator in 2016.

Romualdez, who is now on his last term, said he had not given much thought about running for a national post.

He said that he would rather focus on the rehabilitation of Tacloban which is still reeling from the massive devastation caused by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” in 2013.

“I’m not seeking for any position. But a lot of people, specifically the religious people, say that it would be selfish of me if I will not offer my service to the people, especially on the experience that we went through,” Romualdez said, referring to Yolanda that pummeled Tacloban.

Romualdez is the nephew of former first lady and now Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda R. Marcos.

His cousin, Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, is said to be running for president while another cousin, Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, is said to be interested to run for senator. RC