Senator Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara on Thursday, Sept. 2 clarified he has no plans to run for vice president in the upcoming May 2022 national elections.
In a statement, Angara said he is honored to have his name crop up in election discussions but said he is focused on his work in the Senate as chair of the Senate Committee on Finance which will be tackling next year’s proposed P5.024-trillion national budget for 2022.
"No plans as busy din kami dito sa trabaho namin sa Senado at sa pagtulong sa paghanap ng mga solusyon dito sa pandemya (No plans as we are also busy with our work in the Senate and in helping find solutions to this COVID-19 pandemic),” Angara said when sought for comment.
“But as I’ve said before, it’s an honor to even be mentioned for these positions,” he said.
Angara’s name was mentioned by Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio as one of the six alleged aspiring vice presidential candidates in next year’s elections.
According to Duterte-Carpio Angara is among those being paired with her. Senators Christopher Go and Sherwin Gatchalian, she said, have also personally expressed their offer to run as her vice president.
The Davao City mayor earlier said she is open to running for president but has yet to formally declare her political plans for next year.
Her father, President Duterte, meanwhile has accepted the nomination to be the Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino-Laban’s (PDP-Laban) vice presidential candidate in the 2022 polls.
The group of Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi in the PDP-Laban is eyeing a Go-Duterte tandem to present in the elections, while the camp of Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III is planning to support the possible presidential bid of Sen. Manny Pacquiao.
Pimentel earlier accused Cusi’s faction of fielding a “decoy tandem” saying he believes they would be supporting an outsider to be the party’s standard bearer.
Angara’s Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) earlier forged an alliance with the Duterte-Carpio’s regional party, the Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP).