MANILA, Philippines - Women’s party-list group Gabriela is supporting Sen. Grace Poe for president and not Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.
Gabriela spokesperson Arlene Brosas clarified yesterday that they are not supporting Duterte after the party-list group’s outgoing Rep. Luz Ilagan claimed that the women’s organization is backing Duterte for president.
Ilagan, who is running for councilor of Davao City under Duterte’s Hugpong Party, had said that Gabriela supports Duterte and even defended the mayor’s flirting and kissing women in his campaign sorties, and his alleged womanizing.
“We are not supporting Mayor Duterte. We also condemn his acts of kissing women in the course of his campaign and his alleged womanizing,” Brosas told the Usaping Balita forum at the Serye restaurant in Quezon City.
Brosas said since their group is part of the Makabayan bloc whose senatorial candidate Rep. Neri Colmenares has been adopted by Poe, Gabriela is therefore supporting Poe.
She said Ilagan’s support for Duterte is a personal decision on the part of the congresswoman, who is finishing her third and last term in June.
“She should explain why she is supporting the mayor,” she added.
Senatorial bet Valenzuela City Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian said the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) could deliver command votes that would ensure the victory of Sen. Poe and her vice presidential runningmate Sen. Francis Escudero.
Gatchalian, a member of the NPC and senatorial candidate in Poe’s slate, said incumbent party officials and members in various provinces and cities will use their respective machinery and tap their command votes to help the Poe-Escudero tandem.
“Our party is the second biggest political party in the country based on the number of incumbent congressmen, governors and city mayors. NPC incumbent governors and mayors can deliver command votes in their respective areas,” Gatchalian told the weekly Pandesal Forum in Quezon City.
NPC, which was formed by businessman Eduardo Cojuangco in 1991, counts 2,469 incumbent officials among its ranks, including two senators, 37 congressmen, 12 provincial governors, 14 vice governors, 106 provincial board members, 23 city mayors, 19 city vice mayors, 205 city councilors, 217 municipal mayors, 229 municipal vice mayors and 1,605 municipal councilors.
He said the NPC is solidly behind Poe despite claims by other presidential candidates that NPC is divided among several presidential aspirants.
He said the party leaders would talk to other members who might want to support other presidential bets after NPC president and Deputy Speaker Giorgidi Aggabao said that 90 percent of party members support Poe and Escudero.
When asked during the open forum for his prognosis on Poe’s disqualification case, he expressed confidence that the Supreme Court would decide in favor of Poe.
He said the party has closely studied the case and believes that Poe has a strong case.