PDP-Laban bet withdraws to give way to Duterte’s presidential run

Martin “Bobot” Diño of the PDP-Laban formally announced his withdrawal from the 2016 presidential race yesterday to give way to candidacy of Davao Mayor Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte.

In his statement of cancellation/ withdrawal, Diño said Duterte will officially replace him as a presidential candidate for next year’s polls.

“I’m hereby withdrawing my candidacy for the position of president of the Republic of the Philippines. My substitute shall be Rodrigo ‘Rody’ Duterte if any,” Diño said in his statement, which he filed before the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

However, it is still uncertain whether this will be allowed by the Comelec.

In a previous press conference, Comelec spokesman James Jimenez disclosed this will be among the issues the poll body will resolve before Dec. 10, when they are scheduled to release the final list of candidates who will run for the 2016 polls.

“Questions about COC (certificate of candidacy) right now are being evaluated and they are undergoing judicial process so I can’t address… hearings have yet to be scheduled, we expect the hearing schedule to come out after close of (voter’s) registration next week,” Jimenez said.

Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista said the poll body is now studying the matter.

“We will study the matter although it is still hypothetical whether someone will substitute for him,” Bautista said.

There is also no information whether Duterte is willing to substitute Diño, who was among the 130 presidential aspirants who filed their COCs.

Despite irregularities in Diño’s COC, where he indicated he is running for the position of mayor instead of president, the Comelec Law Department still accepted the PDP-Laban bets document and included him as among the presidential aspirants.

The Comelec Law Department later declared Diño a nuisance candidate. But this decision will only be declared with finality by the Comelec en banc.

As of press time, Duterte has yet to issue any statement whether he will accept the offer to substitute Diño.

Jun Villaroman, one of the leaders of Duterte’s supporters in Metro Manila, said they anticipated the move from Diño’s camp and vowed to continue to push the Davao City chief executive to finally run as president in the 2016 elections.

“Well from the very start it was expected because Mayor Duterte is really the only one, who we really wanted to run as president...he is the only one who can beat Mar, Grace, Binay or even Miriam in 2016,” Villaroman said in a text message.

Duterte has repeatedly denied interest in joining the presidential race, opting to file his COC for mayor on Oct. 16.