Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III today said PDP Laban, the party which he heads, will issue a Certificate of Nomination for Presidential prospect and Davao City Mayor Rody Duterte which he would like to be signed by millions of Filipinos.
“This will be a People’s Nomination,” said Pimentel who hopes that Duterte who has earlier declared that he was not interested in running for the Presidency, would be convinced that he is needed by the Filipino “in these trying times.”
Duterte is a member of PDP-Laban whose advocacy for Federalism and achievement in turning Davao City from a Killing Fields of Communist assassins to one of the Safest Cities in the world today has made him a legendary figure in a country with grim crime statistics and an estimated 3-million drug addicts.
Pimentel, in spite of the public pronouncements by Duterte that he would not run for President, has continued to hope that the 70-year-old former public prosecutor would realize that he is needed by the Filipino people to lead them.
“The Filipino people should convince him and endorse him. I believe he would yield to the will of the people,” Pimentel said.
While the three other Presidential hopefuls – Vice President Jejomar Binay, former DILG Secretary Manuel Roxas III and Senator Grace Poe – were endorsed by big business and political parties or personally stepped up and volunteered to run for President, Pimentel said PDP-Laban will allow the Filipino people to nominate Duterte for President.
“No Presidential candidate in the history of this country, except perhaps President Cory Aquino who was swept to the Presidency by People Power, could claim that they were urged by the ordinary people to be their President,” Pimentel said.
Right after the 2010 Presidential elections, Vice President Binay, without any party or political groups endorsing him, that he would seek the Presidency after the term of President Benigno S. Aquino III.
Recently, former Senator and DILG Secretary Mar Roxas, who lost to Binay in the vice presidential elections in 2010, was anointed by President Aquino as the standard bearer of the Liberal Party (LP) without even a semblance of a party nomination.
On Wednesday, Poe, a first-term Senator, supported largely by several political personalities and a huge group of movie stars “offered herself as President of the Filipino people” to continue what she said was started by her late adoptive father, movie actor and Presidential candidate Fernando Poe, Jr.
Binay will run under his own party, United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), Roxas under the LP while Poe said she will run as independent although she reportedly has the support of several members of at least four major political parties.
Pimentel said the People’s Nomination will be prepared shortly before the filing of the Certificates of Candidacy second week of October 2015.
It will published in major newspapers all over the country and posted on social media networks, Facebook and Twitter.
Hard copies will also be sent to PDP-Laban leaders and the various networks of non-government organisations supporting Duterte who in turn will ask people in their areas to sign the Nomination.
“Let the people endorse the person they would like to lead this country,” Pimentel said.
(Note: This media statement was issued by the Office of Senator Pimentel through ASTRAVEL P. NAIK Political Affairs Officer of Sen. Aquilino “Koko” L. Pimentel III Room 512, Senate of the Philippines
GSIS Bldg., Roxas Blvd., Pasay City 02-822-9759)
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