Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez. INQUIRER.net / NOY MORCOSO
Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez would rather that the Duterte administration-backed Partido Demokratiko Pilipino–Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban)’s senatorial slate be exclusive to its members in the upcoming elections in 2019.
“Hindi ko naman kailangan ng mga guest candidates, ang daming gustong tumakbong PDP,” Alvarez said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel (ANC) on Wednesday.
(We don’t need guest candidates, there are so many who want to run with PDP.)
“Mayroon tayong isinusulong na partido. Ngayon, kung guest candidate ka lang, hindi ka committed sa party, doon sa mga advocacy ng party, doon sa advocacy ng ating Pangulo,” he added.
(We have a party which we are promoting. Now, if you’re just a guest candidate, you’re not committed to the party and to the advocacy of the party, the advocacy of the President.)
Alvarez, however, said that no non-PDP member has so far asked him to be included in the senatorial slate.
During the interview, anchor Karen Davila gave Alvarez names of reelectionist senators who could possibly join the party.
Asked whether Senators Grace Poe, Sonny Angara, Nancy Binay and JV Ejercito could join the slate, Alvarez said they should first join PDP, except Sen. Cynthia Villar whose party, Nacionalista Party, is in alliance with PDP.
The speaker said he wants to field candidates who will work hard in the Senate, which he earlier branded a “slow congress.”
“Magpapatakbo ako ng mga senador na alam kong magtatrabaho. Kasi nababagalan nga ako,” Alvarez said.
(I will have Senators, who I know will work hard, to run. Because I feel that they are slow.)
That’s why he said he was pushing for reelectionist Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, Negros Occidental Rep. Alfredo Abelardo “Albee” Benitez, Bataan Rep. Geraldine Roman, Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles, and Taguig City-Pateros Rep. Pia Cayetano in the senatorial elections. /je