Is Duterte hinting Evasco to run for Bohol governor?
TAGBILARAN CITY — Then Davao City mayor, now President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, once asked his former campaign manager and now Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco Jr. how much the latter needs to run for governor.
“Prior to the 2016 elections, then mayor Rodrigo Duterte asked his loyal political lieutenant how much it would take for the latter to run for governor of Bohol,” according to an analysis written by veteran journalist and former editor-in-chief of the now defunct Sunday Post and today’s one of President Duterte’s writers.
“Would it be far-fetch to expect the same question to be asked of him (Evasco), again, no longer by a city mayor but by the president of the Republic himself?” Fuentes raised this poser.
Fuentes divulged the president’s earlier statement, apparently to counter speculation that since Evasco has been seen in many occasions, his perceived opponents have another interpretation to it. “In recent weeks—as if on cue—media reports began putting political color on the series of speaking engagements Evasco gave in different parts of Bohol.”
The Fuentes analysis reads further: “Instead of recognizing the fact that Evasco merely honored the invitations he received, the reports made it appear that the opposite was true: The initiative came from him. This is, of course, farthest from the truth.”
Meanwhile, a former PDP-Laban stalwart who asked not to be named said that the party of the president in Bohol province appeared to be still in disarray. He said that the joining of Representative Arthur Yap (3rd district, Bohol), a former Nationalist People’s Coalition member, to the PDPLaban has generated mixed reactions, among politicians here.
Yap has been touted to throw his hat into the gubernatorial race in 2019. But reports said he wouldn't push through if Evasco would also gun for the post.
Some listener-callers—participating in radio discussion over DYTR’s Cuentas Claras program anchored by veteran broadcaster Ted Ayeng and Edgar Tumanda last week—predicted that some partymates may severe their membership with PDPLaban following Yap’s entry.
Recently, Yap pledged allegiance to PDP-Laban before the party’s secretarygeneral, House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez. Yap was with former president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Camiguin Rep. Xavier Romualdo, and lawyer Raul Lambino of Pangasinan in joining PDP-Laban.
It appeared however that all is not well with the leadership of the party in Bohol, perhaps due to the reported rift between former Panglao town mayor Doloreich Dumaluan and suspended Vice Governor Dionisio Balite over who would be the right person to lead the party.