Joy Belmonte: If Du30 party ‘would open doors for me…’

Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte on Thursday said she had the Liberal Party’s blessing when she switched parties and joined the ruling Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), the political vehicle that put Rodrigo Duterte in the path to the presidency.

“If this party would open doors for me and bigger opportunities to serve the people because they believe in this administration, and if the department heads would be more open to me because I am part of their party, I was thinking this would be more consistent with the city,” Belmonte said in an interview Wednesday.

She said it would be “hypocritical” of her not to say that the choice also involved self-interest. “(But) I think the benefits for the city outweigh self-interest… I feel I can serve better as part of PDP-Laban, with the blessing of the President, the Senate President and the majority of our political leaders.”
QC folk ‘supportive’ of Du30

“The people of my city are overwhelmingly supportive of President Duterte and his message of change,” she said. “I am also already active with the President’s advocacies, including antidrugs and anticorruption.”

The vice mayor heads the city’s Anti-Drug Abuse Advisory Council.

Belmonte also counted herself as a supporter of the shift to federalism, one of the core advocacies of PDP-Laban.

She said LP leaders, particularly her “really close friend” Vice President Leni Robredo; and her father, former Speaker and current Quezon City Rep. Feliciano Belmonte, had given her their blessing when she moved to the ruling party.

Along with Councilor Gian Carlo Sotto, Belmonte took her oath as PDP-Laban member before the party president, Senate President Koko Pimentel, on Wednesday.

Belmonte shared her plans to have Sotto as her running mate as she sets her sights on the mayoralty in the 2019 elections.