Bacolod City – Nationalist People’s Coalition Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said that he will most likely support NPC presidential and vice-presidential bets in the May next year elections, as a party member.
This was after Lacson confirmed yesterday that he did not sign a manifesto of the League of Provinces of the Philippines, that expressed their support to the Senator Bong Go-Rodrigo Duterte tandem for the position of president and vice president.
Lacson said he did not sign it, being a member of NPC, stressing that “We have not decided what we will do for 2022”.
It is also my wish that in Negros Occidental, we have only one candidate, he also said. While it is possible, it is very difficult to achieve, he stressed.
While some top NPC officials recently visited the province to attend a baptism activity in southern Negros. Lacson said there is no advice yet for NPC members in Negros Occidental, whom they will support in the presidential and vice-presidential race, as he expects that it will be known after the filing of Certificates of Candidacy in October this year.
The tandem of Senator Panfilo Lacson and Senate President Vicente Sotto III, who is a member of NPC, officially launched their bid for president and vice president positions, for the 2022 national elections.
“If that is the case, we will see our final instructions, especially after the filing of certificates of candidacy. We will know, if, indeed, NPC will have its own candidates”, Lacson said.
But Lacson said he will stick to the party decision, whoever it will endorse.
“It’s been a while since NPC had members holding the top two positions. It would be nice to have one fellow member. But of course, it will be a challenge on how we can help make our party candidate win”, he also said.
During the 1992 elections, the late business tycoon Eduardo Cojuangco, was defeated by then Defense Secretary Fidel Ramos in the presidential race.
Lacson said that NPC will be put to a test, in case, there is an official candidate for both the presidency and vice-president.
Meanwhile, at least a dozen city and municipal mayors in Negros Occidental, are calling on Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte to run for president in the May 2022 elections.
But Duterte-Carpio yesterday said she will no longer run for presidency in the 2022 national elections after her father, President Rodrigo Duterte, accepted his nomination as vice presidential candidate of PDP-Laban.
Duterte-Carpio cited a supposed agreement in their family that only one of them can run for a national post in next year’s polls. (Gilbert Bayoran via The Visayan Daily Star (TVDS), photo courtesy of TVDS)