Bato confirms offering PDP standard bearer slot to Sara during Davao meeting

PDP-Laban standard bearer and Senator Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa on Friday confirmed that he offered his slot to Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte during his visit at her office last Monday.

Dela Rosa told GMA News Online he saw “hope in her eyes” when he offered the PDP-Laban standard bearer slot to Sara.

“(She had) no definite answer (to my offer), but I saw hope in her eyes,” Dela Rosa said in a Viber message.

Asked if this means Sara is open to taking his offer, Dela Rosa said “yes.”

In a television interview earlier in the day, PDP-Laban president and Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi bared that Dela Rosa had offered his slot under PDP-Laban’s banner to Sara, as the senator insisted that the presidential daughter is a consistent “frontrunner” in the surveys for the 2022 national and local elections.

He also disclosed that Dela Rosa will not run if he will go against Sara in the upcoming polls.

“The good senator even offered na (that he is) available siyang i-substitute ni (to be substituted by) Mayor Sara in case she will run,” Cusi said in an interview on CNN Philippines.

Last Monday, Dela Rosa visited Sara at her office in Davao City and “reminded” her of the November 15 deadline for candidate substitution.

Under the Commission on Elections' calendar for 2022 polls, substitution for a candidate in a national or local post can be filed from the end of the COC filing period until November 15, 2021.

Dela Rosa earlier said he was ready to give way to Mayor Sara if the latter would decide to run for president in the coming elections.

There had been calls for the presidential daughter to run for president but she has since insisted that she wanted to finish her third and last term as Davao City mayor.

She filed her certificate of candidacy for reelection on October 2.

Despite this, Cusi said in the same television interview that Dela Rosa’s offer is not a party position and is a “personal offer” to Sara.

The party leader said PDP-Laban is “firmed up” with the Dela Rosa-Bong Go tandem for 2022.

He mentioned anew that Sara is “very firm” in her decision not to run under PDP-Laban, the party chaired by her father, President Rodrigo Duterte.

Moreover, Cusi expressed hope that Sara would endorse the PDP-Laban candidates and an alliance be made between the ruling party and Hugpong ng Pagbabago, a Davao-based political party chaired by the presidential daughter.

“We hope. That would be a strong alliance if that will happen and yes, we will welcome that,” he said.

“As of now there [are] no formal talks. We are just seeing how things are developing, whether Mayor Inday will not change her mind, tingnan po natin (Let’s see). We are still hopeful that we will be able to establish an alliance with Hugpong,” he added.

GMA News Online has sought the comment of the younger Duterte and her spokesperson on the matter but they have yet to reply, as of posting time.

On the other hand, Cusi said Duterte is still “discerning and thinking hard” about the party’s call for him to vie a Senate seat in 2022.

“He did not turn it down, he did not give any answer. Ang sabi ko nga (Like what I said) he must be really discerning, thinking about it seriously,” he said.

Last Wednesday, Cusi issued a statement, disclosing calls for Duterte to run for senator in the coming 2022 elections.

PDP-Laban Cusi wing’s original plan was to push for a Go-Duterte tandem in 2022, however, the President decided to drop his 2022 plans, saying he would retire from politics.

Go, a senator and Duterte’s longtime aide, filed his certificate of candidacy for vice president last October 2.—AOL, GMA News