(UPDATED) - President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday, October 9, revealed the names of at least six Cabinet officials who will be seeking elective posts in the 2019 mid-term elections.
They are Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque Jr., Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, Agrarian Reform Secretary John Castriciones, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda) director general Guiling Mamondiong, Presidential Political Adviser Francis Tolentino, and Special Assistant to the President Christopher Lawrence "Bong" Go.
"There will be guys running for national office. Castriciones and Harry Roque, I think, is really running... Alan Peter Cayetano is also running. Si Mamondiong sa (Mamondiong of Tesda) is also running. I don't know about ythe others. I am not in a position to state in uncertainty," he said In an interview with Palace reporters,
"I think Bong Go is running. Si Francis, eto nang-hinayang ako (On Francis, I regret about his plan to run)," he added.
Incumbent government officials are deemed resigned from their respective posts once they file their certificates of candidacy (COC) for the 2019 elections.
The filing of COC for local and national posts is scheduled on October 11 to 17.
Roque on October 4 said the Cabinet officials who might run for the 2019 elections would be immediately replaced.
"The President will not run out of appointees. For every Cabinet official [who] leaves, there's probably a hundred people interested in one post," Roque earlier said.
"So there will not be a shortage of individuals to fill in the slots, or the vacancies to be vacated by Cabinet members seeking public office," he added. (SunStar Philippines)