House Majority Leader and Leyte 1st District Rep. Martin G. Romualdez on Monday said he will support a bid by President Rodrigo Duterte to run for vice president next year.
Romualdez said there is no legal impediment to keep the President from seeking the country’s second-highest elective post when his term expires in 2021.
Romualdez, President Duterte’s personal choice for the vice presidency, said he would support the President should he decide to join the vice presidential race, saying he “is the strongest and most experienced candidate.”
“If the President runs for vice president, in my opinion, he is the strongest and most experienced candidate who can be vice-president and of course we will support that,” Romualdez said in a radio interview.
“I am also grateful to my Lakas-CMD party. Thanks also to our President Duterte for the trust and confidence given to me when he considered me as his candidate for vice president,” Romualdez said in Filipino.
Romualdez earlier said he is keeping his options open for a possible run for higher office.
Romualdez, a lawyer and president of the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa), said he sees no constitutional prohibition in case President Duterte decides to run for vice president.
He also said his party would extend its full and unqualified support not only to the presidential candidate to be selected by Mayor Sara Duterte’s HNP, but also to its chosen vice-presidential candidate.
Romualdez, in a statement, said the party also decided to renew its alliance on issues of good governance, national unity, and continued reforms for economic recovery, including the sustained campaign to defeat the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio's Hugpong ng Pagbabago said it is negotiating with five national parties to form a coalition.
The national parties are Lakas-CMD, National Unity Party, Nacionalista Party, Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) and People's Reform Party (PRP), said the group’s spokesman Anthony del Rosario.
"Those are the five parties that have signified their interest to join this so-called coalition we’re building," he told ANC's Headstart.
"As for the moment, everything is on hold because there has to be a memorandum of agreement between and among all parties. Currently, each party is reviewing the document and we’re still trying to come up with an agreement that is acceptable to all parties."
Under a draft agreement, HNP will choose the candidates for the presidential, vice presidential, and senatorial race.
The Davao City mayor's party will remain regional as she did not have any intention of running for president when it was created, Del Rosario added.
