MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte's allies in the ruling PDP-Laban are still seeking consensus on who to endorse for president in the coming elections, a party official said Wednesday.
"All candidates for president have their own party right? So it’s really a discussion, not only with the personality himself but also with the party. It involves party-to-party discussions," PDP-Laban executive vice president Karlo Nograles told ABS-CBN News when asked whether his party has chosen the presidential candidate it would support.
"It is still undergoing process in PDP-Laban, we’re still trying to seek consensus within PDP-Laban," he added.
The PDP-Laban faction led by Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi initially fielded Sen. Ronald dela Rosa as its standard bearer and Sen. Christopher Go as its candidate for vice president.
Last November, dela Rosa backed out of the presidential race while Go decided to run for president under PDP-Laban's allied political party Pederalismo ng Dakilang Dugong Samahan (PDDS). Go ran under PDDS because of the unsettled party leadership row involving the factions of Cusi and Sen. Koko Pimentel. The Pimentel-led faction is supporting the presidential bid of Sen. Manny Pacquiao. Go dropped out of the race for president last December, leaving the PDP-Laban Cusi faction without a standard bearer.
The Cusi-led faction has adopted Duterte's daughter and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio as its candidate for vice president, saying the quality of her advocacies and vision are strongly aligned with that of PDP-Laban.