Bong Go shuns Alvarez’s offer to run for Senate: ‘Magsisilbi po ako kay Mayor Duterte hanggang kamatayan’

Special Assistant to the President Secretary Christopher “Bong” Go on Friday maintained he is not running for the Senate in the 2019 elections as he vowed to serve President Rodrigo Duterte until his last breath.

“Inuulit ko po, hindi po ako interesado tumakbo sa Senado sa 2019. Magsisilbi po ako kay Mayor Duterte hanggang kamatayan, kung hindi man ako mauna,” Go said in a statement in response to Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez’s plan to persuade him to seek a Senate seat.

Alvarez said he would like to convince Go to run because the ruling PDP-Laban party needs a candidate from Duterte’s home island of Mindanao.

Go quipped that he may reconsider his position if the House leader taps him as a sponsor in his wedding.

“Pero kung tutuparin ni Speaker Alvarez ang pangako niyang kunin akong ninong sa kasal niya, baka magbago po isip ko,” the Palace official said.

Alvarez has long been estranged from his legal wife, Emelita Apostol Alvarez, but he argued that he can marry his girlfriend because a member of the Manobo tribe like him is allowed multiple marriages.

Go is expected to attend the start of the Senate investigation the controversial P15.5-billion frigate acquisition project of the Philippine Navy on February 19, a venue Duterte had said can be his closest aide’s ticket to the Senate.

The Palace official, however, clarified on February 7 that Duterte only mentioned the matter “in jest” during the 116th anniversary celebration of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) on February 6 “in view of my demand to the Senate to conduct a full blown public hearing and get to the bottom of the frigate controversy.”

Go then declared his lack of interest for a Senate post. — RSJ, GMA News