President Duterte will start to campaign for the national and local candidates of the Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) starting on March 25, the faction of the party led by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said on Friday.
“As Chairman of the PDP Laban, President Duterte will be taking a more proactive role to promote its 6,592 national and local candidates these coming weeks of the campaign period,” said Cusi, the party’s president.
“The President told us that he will be giving his full support to all our candidates in this year’s elections. Once elected, we will continue all the programs and advocacies of President Duterte from the national to the local level. We are after all the ‘Patuloy na Pagbabago Coalition’,” Cusi added.
According to Cusi, the PDP-Laban will also formally launch its “11-point Agenda for Continuity” during their proclamation rally.
“We will reiterate that only the PDP-Laban Party is for the true continuity of all President Duterte’s legacy programs and advocacies for the Filipinos. These are unprecedented achievements and programs that we want to continue for the next generation,” he said.
“And people could never deny these accomplishments. They are everywhere. The proof is out there and the survey shows it all. We can deliver on our promises,” Dela Rosa stressed.
Cusi reiterated that no president or administration has ever accomplished Duterte’s achievements such as the the “Build, Build, Build” program, the institutionalization of free education from kindergarten to college, the passage into law of the Universal Health Care and the Malasakit Centers, free irrigation for all farmers, the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), and the whole-of-nation approach to end local communist armed conflict througj the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict or NTF-ELCAC.
“These legacy programs are very important to all Filipinos. And definitely, our PDP-Laban senators will continue to champion and protect these accomplishments through the PDP Laban's 11-point Agenda for Continuity,” he said.
Last January, the administration-backed PDP-Laban announced it is formally adopting Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio as the party’s vice presidential candidate.
However, Duterte, chairman of the ruling political party, has yet to endorse a particular presidential candidate as he has refused to adopt Mayor Sara’s running mate, former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr.