SPEAKER Pantaleon Alvarez on Saturday urged new members of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino in Zamboanga del Sur to support not only PDP candidates but also candidates from other parties who are supportive of the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Alvarez urged them to vote for the party’s senatorial bets in the 2019 polls and reject others, particularly those who do not support federalism.
He made the call before an estimated 15, 000 local officials and private individuals who took their oath as new PDP members at the Molave Gymnasium in Zamboanga City.
Aside from the previous names that Alvarez endorsed as possible senatorial candidates of the ruling party, he also appealed to the new PDP members to support Rep. Pia Cayetano of Taguig City and Cynthia Villar in their senatorial bid.
The two lawmakers are both from the Nacionalista Party.
“They are not members of the party but they are very supportive of the President,” Alvarez said
But before endorsing Cayetano and Villar, Alvarez stressed the need to support the party’s own senatorial candidates in 2019.
Among the names mentioned by Alvarez as possible members of the PDP senatorial ticket were incumbent lawmakers such as Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III and Representatives Sajid Mangudadatu of Maguindanao, Karlo Nograles of Davao City, Alfredo Benitez of Negros Occidental and Geraldine Roman of Bataan.
The name of Rep. Reynaldo Umali of Oriental Mindoro had been floated earlier as possible member of the PDP senatorial ticket.
From the Executive Department, Alvarez named Special Presidential Assistant Christopher Go, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, Presidential Communications Operations Office Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson and Presidential Political Adviser Francis Tolentino.
“But the one who would determine the final list of the administration’s senatorial ticket is of course President Duterte,” Alvarez said.
However, Alvarez said that for candidates from other parties to join the administrations’s senatorial ticket, they must support federalism.
“It will be [a requirement] definitely, because federalism is the cornerstone of the PDP,” Alvarez said.
He added that it would make an awkward situation if candidates from other parties would share the stage with PDP’s own senatorial bets if they were not supporting federalism.
“It is awkward that PDP has an advocacy for federalism and yet you would be singing another song,” Alvarez said.
Meanwhile, Alvarez expressed appreciation for the huge turnout of participants in the mass oath-taking rite.
Zamboanga del Norte Rep. Divina Grace Yu, who hosted the event, noted that the turnout exceeded their expectations.
She noted that with 700 barangays in the province, they expected to get at least 10 from each as the capacity of the venue would be 7,000 at the most.
Participants in the mass oath-taking came from the 26 municipalities of the province and Pagadian City, the regional center of Zamboanga Peninsula.
“But according to the AFP estimate around 15,000 participants arrived,” Yu said.
Apart from administering the oath to the new PDP members, Alvarez also swore in Yu as the PDP provincial council president of Zamboanga del Sur.
Alvarez said the huge turnout would boost PDP’s advocacy for federalism.
“We need strength at the grassroots level, particularly when we begin the revision of the Constitution,” said Alvarez.
In particular, Alvarez said the growing PDP strength in the barangay level would help in the information campaign to make the people understand the benefits of a federal form of government.
“Our members in the barangays are the ones who could explain to their neighbors what is this federalism that we are talking about and the advantages of revising our Constitution,” he said.