A local official in Mindanao revealed to the media that several Liberal Party (LP) stalwarts in the region have decided to abandon the presidential bid of Mar Roxas, the official candidate for President of LP in favor of the tough-talking Davao City Rodrigo Duterte who already decided to run for President in the 2016 national elections.
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The Liberal Party Chairman in Mindanao, former Mayor Rey Uy noted that he and his partymates have decided to cross party lines in support of the presidential bid of Mayor Duterte, the lone presidential candidate from Mindanao.
The 59-year-old Mayor Rey Uy, a former mayor in Tagum City said that local politics in Mindanao would become “like chop suey,” because more candidates under various political parties would be jumping ship to Duterte’s side, who is running under the Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino-Laban ng Bayan (PDP-Laban).
Although majority of the local officials in Mindanao are supporting Mayor Duterte they stated that their support for Mayor Duterte would mean that they were also abandoning the LP because they will still vote the Vice Presidential and Senatorial candidates of the administration party.
Some of the most popular LP members who will be supporting Mayor Duterte are LP Chief and Governor of Compostela Valley, Gov. Arturo Uy; and Gov. Rodolfo del Rosario, LP Davao del Norte chairman.
Other political clans who already expressed their support for Duterte were re-electionist mayor of Tagum City Allan Rellon of PDP-Laban; former Davao del Norte Representative Antonio Floirendo Jr., also known as the “kingmaker of Mindanao,” and close ally of VP Binay.
According to Duterte’s spokesperson, Peter Laviña, they had expected a large number of Mindanao politicians supporting Duterte’s presidential bid even if they belong to other parties, he even predicted as high as 80 percent of Mindanao leaders will go for Rody Duterte as their president in 2016.