HOUSE Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez has warned that the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino will actively and openly campaign against any candidates for senator and other elective positions in the forthcoming 2019 elections who will strongly oppose the proposed federalism.
Speaking before over 3,000 new party members at the Datu Lipus Makapandong Cultural Center in Patin-Ay in Agusan del Sur, Agusan called on the people to back the shift to a federal system of government that would pave the way for the development potential in the countryside.
“I have one request. Please don’t vote for candidates, particularly for senators, who are opposing federalism,” he told the new members, led by Agusan del Sur Gov. Edward Adolph Plaza, and Representatives Evelyn Mellana and Maria Valentina Plaza.
“It is like this. PDP is one party with one advocacy of federalism. So to us, if you do not support federalism, we really have to campaign against you since you do not want to [help] spur development in the provinces,” he said.
Under a federal form of government, the poor and neglected provinces shall stand to benefit significantly, he pointed out.
“We wish to pass federalism to be part of Constitution to ensure a change within the term of President Rodrigo Duterte,” Alvarez said.
He said it is high time to raise the political maturity of the voting public and the whole nation as well, adding that the old practice of politics based solely on popularity or personality must not be the basis to elect leaders.
He challenged senatorial aspirants in the 2019 elections to make a clear stance on federalism.
Alvarez also rallied behind the President, who had admitted being a dictator to put the country in order, saying the President’s critics were the ones acting as despots.
“He [Duterte] is not really a dictator. People must see it this way, he is just exercising his powers in accordance with the principles of democracy,” he told a television interview.
“The problem lies with some people, the small minority that is used to dictate on the leaders of the country. They are [actually] the dictators,” he said, adding “the President does not want to listen to them. He does not want them to dictate on him.”