Tugade on Eleksyon 2022: ‘Ipagdasal ninyo ako that I make the right decision’

Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade on Monday requested prayers for discernment, when asked if he would seek a position in the 2022 polls after being included in the senatorial slate of the ruling party.

Tugade, along with seven other Cabinet secretaries, is being considered in the PDP-Laban’s senatorial lineup for Eleksyon 2022, Secretary General Melvin Matibag said last month.

Asked if he had already made a decision, Tugade did not give a categorical answer,  and instead requested prayers.

“‘Yung sagot ko [My answer] is a request. Puwede ba ipagdasal ninyo, lahat kayo, ipagdasal ninyo ako [Can you, all of you, pray for me] that I make the right decision. I will be in a crossroad of a career and a profession and a life,” he said during the virtual Pandesal Forum.

“I ask for your prayers at this time. When the prayers are answered, I promise you, you will know,” he added.

Tugade in June said any possibility of him running in the 2022 polls will be based on the decision of President Rodrigo Duterte.

“What the President says, so it will go. As far as I am concerned, I am a soldier,” he said at the time.

Tugade, a classmate of Duterte at the San Beda College of Law, was appointed as Transportation chief in 2016.

“Matatapos ho ‘yung termino ng ating Pangulo, hahabulin at tatapusin namin ang mga proyekto. Ang pakiusap ko lang ho sa inyo, pabaunan ninyo kami ng tiwala, dasal, at pakikiisa, para ‘yung mga proyektong gusto naming tapusin ay matapos,” he said Monday.

[The term of the President is ending, and we intend to fulfill the project pipeline. We request for your trust, prayers, and unity so the projects we intend to finish are completed.]

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) in September 2020 said it will deliver all promised projects before the end of Duterte’s term in 2022.

The national and local elections have been scheduled on May 9, 2022. — RSJ, GMA News