MANILA, Philippines – Davao City 1st District Representative Paolo Duterte on Saturday (July 6) announced that he is withdrawing his bid for the speakership in the House of Representatives of the 18th Congress.
Duterte said he made the decision after personally speaking with his father, President Rodrigo Duterte, in Davao City on Thursday night.
“We both agreed that this will not be the right time for me to be Speaker and I can still help his administration from the House in a different capacity,” he said in a statement released on Saturday.
The presidential son earlier said he might join the speakership race amid talks of term-sharing, even proposing that the highest House post be shared by representatives from Mindanao, Visayas, Luzon and the party-list groups.
READ: Paolo Duterte says he might join House Speakership race
He earlier said he decided to join the race to unite the members of the House who are being divided by the issue.
The presidential son was also reported earlier to have formed a group with other solons from Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HNP) and Hugpong sa Tawong Lungsod (HTL) in line with the bid for a unified Congress.
READ: Paolo Duterte, other solons form coalition amid House Speakership race
Davao City 3rd District Representative Isidro Ungab is among the members of the group, dubbed as the Duterte Coalition. Ungab was earlier nominated by the HNP as its candidate for the speakership post.
READ: Hugpong ng Pagbabago endorses Ungab for House Speaker post
The presidential son said he will now support the bid of Ungab.
“As President of Hugpong sa Tawong Lungsod, I will support the bid for speakership of Congressman Isidro Ungab from our sister party, Hugpong ng Pagbabago,” he said.
“The President has also been fully informed of Rep. Ungab’s participation in the race for the next Speaker of the House of Representatives,” he added.
With Duterte’s withdrawal from the race, there are now six remaining contenders for the speakership post: Representatives Ungab (Davao City), Martin Romualdez (Leyte), Alan Peter Cayetano (Taguig-Pateros), Aurelio Gonzales (Pampanga), Carlos Zarate (Bayan Muna party-list), and Lord Allan Velasco (Marinduque).
Velasco has been endorsed by the PDP-Laban as its bet for the post.
Notably, most of the speakership bets are allies of the Duterte administration and the president has repeatedly said he would not endorse any candidate despite calls for him to do so.
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