DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 25 Nov) – House Majority Floor Leader Martin Romualdez believes that the tandem of former Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte will “guide and steer” the country to the right direction.
Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte and former Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in a meeting in Cebu City. Photo from the official FB page of Mayor Inday Sara Duterte
Romualdez, president of Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD), said during the UNITEAM Alliance of his party with Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP), Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP), and Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) that the Marcos-Duterte tandem possesses the characteristics of leaders who have “solid background in public service.”
The Lakas-CMD passed a resolution during an executive committee meeting on Wednesday, adopting Marcos Jr., son of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., as its presidential candidate.
The representative from Leyte said that their standard bearers will choose working together over finger-pointing or blame-shifting, aspiring to “bring prosperity for our people and to put an end to poverty and hunger.”
He said the country needs leaders with “steely nerves in leadership” and a clear vision on how to keep Filipino families safe and Philippine economy growing and expanding.
“We choose peace over lawlessness, we choose tranquility in the community over chaos on the street, we choose economic activity over the idle talk or endless debates,” Romualdez said.
President Rodrigo R. Duterte, who is supporting the candidacy of his long-time aide Senator Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go for president under the Pederalismo ng Dugong Dakilang Samahan (PDDS), called Marcos Jr. as a “weak leader.”
After his tirades against Marcos, the President disclosed that a presidential aspirant was using cocaine. Days later, Marcos shared result of his drug test which yielded negative result.
Sara also took a drug test that yielded negative of any illegal substances.
“This test, I took voluntarily upon the request of my Uniteam partner, Senator Bongbong Marcos, to support the call for transparency as aspiring public officials seeking the trust of our fellow Filipinos,” she said.
After claiming that she was not seeking a national post, Sara filed her candidacy for vice president last November 13 as a substitute candidate under Lakas-CMD.
In a statement, House Deputy Minority leader and Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate described the Marcos-Sara Duterte tandem as “a potential ‘dictatorannical’ regime” and called on the public to unite their efforts “and thwart this from happening.”
“What is at stake here are not only the future of our country but also the survival of the very freedoms that we fought for and won, from the time of the Marcos dictatorship until this period of the tyrannical regime of President Duterte,” Zarate said.
He urged the opposition to “put aside their differences and forge a broad united force against the ‘mad’ (Marcos And Duterte) tandem that has the state machinery and the plundered money of our people at their disposal. We must prevent the ‘mad’ tandem from winning as this means another dark, even darker, time in our history.” (Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
