ACT-CIS Party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo (Ellson Quismorio/ MANILA BULLETIN)

Forming the administration's prospective 2025 Senate line-up was indeed the top agenda of the "Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas" (Alliance for the New Philippines) meeting in Malacañang on Monday night. 

ACT-CIS Party-list Party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo shared this to House reporters on Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 20 during an impromptu press conference. 

But Tulfo couldn't provide any names from the administration slate since he was too shy to ask House Speaker Martin Romualdez, who led the "strategy meeting". 

"Nahiya naman akong tanungin, 'Boss sinu-sino mga nasa line-up niyo?' (I was too shy to ask, 'Boss, who are the people in your line-up?)" Tulfo said tongue-in-cheek, referring to Romualdez. He said he met with the Speaker before attending the presser. 

Tulfo said that as far as he knows, the names of the "senatoriables" will be forwarded to President Marcos, who will ultimately make the final decision on who gets to join the administration slate. 

"The announcement should come from Malacañang or from the Speaker himself. Pero wala pa...so hindi pa final. Pero, napag-usapan namin ng mga House leaders kung sino yung bets nila na ipapasok doon," he said. 

(There's no final list yet, but the House leaders discussed who were the bets that they wanted to include in the line-up.) 

READ THIS: 

https://mb.com.ph/2024/8/20/bumuo-ng-slate-romualdez-leads-strategy-meeting-for-2025-polls 

Traditionally, a Senate slate or line-up is composed of 12 candidates

"I'm not sure kung kompleto na yung line-up nila or not (I'm not sure if their line-up has been completed or not)," the party-list solon said. 

Still no plans for popular Erwin

Incidentally, Tulfo, a former broadcast journalist, has consistently been the topnotcher in popularity surveys on potential senatorial candidates. But like in the past few months, the deputy majority leader for communications denied have any plans or desire to run for higher office in 2025.

"I'm enjoying what I'm doing. That was my response before. I like what I'm doing.

It's basically the same, Senate, [House]. Then there's still a lot of things I have to learn before probably looking up or looking at the future," he said. 

Romualdez, president of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD), headed the Palace meeting. The attendees included the top officials of the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP), Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), the Nacionalista Party (NP), and the National Unity Party (NUP).