Senator Bong Revilla could run for president in 2016
-A A +AWednesday, January 30, 2013
MANILA (Updated) -- Three years before the next presidential race, Senator Bong Revilla Jr. is now being eyed by his political party, the Lakas Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD), as its standard bearer for the 2016 elections.
"He's a pillar in our political hierarchy," House Deputy Minority Leader Danilo Suarez, vice-chairman of the Lakas-CMD, said Wednesday.
Suarez noted that Revilla, a movie actor, gathered the most number of votes when he ran for senator in the 2010 elections.
"We've seen it before. We've seen it happening again. Iba ang kandidato na galing sa masa at sa pelikula," he said.
Former President Joseph Estrada, who is running for mayor of Manila in the midterm polls, gained his popularity in Philippine cinema before he ran and won in various elective positions, including the presidency during the 1998 national elections.
In a chance interview, Revilla confirmed that his party has considered him to be its standard bearer in 2016 but said he could not commit yet to a presidential run.
"At the right time. Hindi pa naman ako nakakapagdesisyon. Paghahandaan natin, pag-aaralan mabuti. Nakataya dito sambayanan so pag pumasok ako ibig sabihin handa ako," he said.
Lakas-CMD's pronouncement came after the ruling Liberal Party (LP) announced that it will field Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas II in the 2016 presidential race. His likely opponent is Vice President Jejomar Binay, who defeated Roxas in the 2010 automated elections. Binay is the chairman of the United Nationalist Alliance.
Meanwhile, Revilla whose term as senator will end on June 30, 2016 will be replaced as president of the Lakas-CMD, the party of detained former president and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
Assistant Minority Leader and Leyte Representative Ferdinand Martin Romualdez will likely be elected as new party president while Revilla will become the chairman, replacing former Minority Leader Edcel Lagman.
Suarez said Romualdez was the party's pick because he is unopposed in his district in Leyte, while Revilla's family members will be busy in the 2013 local polls.
"We will be active. Lakas-CMD will play a role in the elections," he said.
Romualdez's election was scheduled Wednesday but was moved to Tuesday next week, February 5. (Kathrina Alvarez/Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)
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