PDP-Laban preparing for the 2019 elections
BACOLOD CITY — Political maneuverings have started. The Partido Demokratiko PilipinasLakas ng Bayan (PDPLaban), the political party of President Rodrigo Duterte, has begun to finalize its senatorial candidates for the 2019 elections.
On Wednesday, about 13,000 PDPLaban members in Negros Occidental took their oaths before Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, in the cities of Bacolod and Victorias of the province.
Alvarez, PDP-Laban secretary general, announced–during the oathtaking ceremony of thousands of new party members at a coliseum in Victorias City–that Representative Alfredo Benitez( 3rd district, Negros Occidental) and Rep. Geraldine Roman (1st dist., Bataan) as among their 12 senatorial candidates for the party.
Benitez is now on his third term as congressman, and before he joined the PDPLaban, he supported Senator Grace Poe during the 2016 presidential elections when he was stripped of his position as Liberal Party provincial chairman.
During the two mass oathtaking rites, Alvarez rallied the support of the new PDPLaban members, including the 3,000 who took their oaths in Bacolod City, to back the senatorial candidates of PDP-Laban, to ensure domination of the Senate by the ruling party.
Of the 180 legislative measures passed by the House of Representatives, Alvarez said only 10 had been acted so far by the Senate. "In 2019 I am asking you, if you fully support the president, support the candidates of PDP-Laban for the Senate," by coming up with a 12-0 vote for the party, he said.
Alvarez also told the crowd that President Duterte, who is now being targeted by a barrage of accusations, does not want anyone involved with drugs to be a member of the PDP-Laban. "If ever they are, they should join the Liberal Party instead," he said.
Negros Occidental and Bacolod City officials already aired their support to Benitez, if he will run for senator. But Benitez said he is still getting the pulse of the people by going around the country, and this will be the basis for his decision. "There has to be acceptance," he added.