FRIENDS OF RODY DUTERTE PREPARE FOR 2016 CAMPAIGN

By Manny Piñol

Undaunted by the repeated pronouncement of Mayor Rody Duterte that he will not run for President, respected political and civic leaders yesterday formalised the organization of the Friends of Rody Duterte (FoRD) to prepare for the presidential campaign of 2016.

“We continue to pray and hope that Mayor Duterte will realise that he is needed by the country in these times of crisis,” said former immigration commissioner and Pampanga Congresswoman Andrea “Didi” Domingo, national chairperson of FoRD.

Domingo, who convened the first national executive council meeting of the FoRD at the Mirante Hotel in Quezon City yesterday, said that a national assembly to be participated in by an estimated 50,000 leaders nationwide will be held at the Ultra in Pasig before the end of the month.

“While we await the final decision of Mayor Duterte, we have to organize a national movement to undertake the grassroots campaign,” she said.

Present in yesterday’s national executive council meeting was former PDP Laban presidential candidate Martin Diño who withdrew his Certificate of Candidacy (COC) to give way to the expected substitution of Mayor Duterte, and political and civic leaders from all over Luzon.

“Leaders from the Visayas and Mindanao wanted to come but we advised them to just wait for the national assembly so that they could save their funds for the Duterte campaign,” said businessman Rene Concordia, national coordinator of FoRD.

Concordia said FoRD will organise down to the barangay level and identify its leaders and members through ID cards to be issued by the national executive council.

Overseas workers may also organise themselves into FoRD chapters in the country where they are working and elect among themselves their officers, Concordia said.

Their membership information and pictures could be sent through private message to the Facebook page Friends of Rody Duterte, Concordia advised.

Concordia said FoRD will push through with the national organising so that when Mayor Duterte finally decides to accept the call of the people to run for President, the organization’s leaders and members will immediately be ready to undertake the grassroots campaigning.

(Photos show FoRD chairperson Andrea Domingo, former secretary Pantaleon Alvarez, former Quezon Gov. Oscar Rodriguez, former PDP Laban standard bearer Martin Diño and members of the FoRD national executive council.)