Mocha, Roque being eyed as PDP-Laban Senate bets

MANILA, Philippines (Updated 5:41 p.m.) — Undersecretary Mocha Uson and presidential spokesperson Harry Roque are two of the individuals being eyed by the ruling PDP-Laban to be its senatorial candidates in the 2019 mid-term elections, according to House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez.

Aside from Uson and Roque, also being considered as possible candidates for the Senate are Rep. Karlo Nograles (Davao City), Rep. Alfredo Abelardo Benitez (Negros Occidental), Rep. Geraldine Roman (Bataan) and former Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chairman Francis Tolentino.

Uson, a communications undersecretary for social media, is a staunch defender of President Rodrigo Duterte and maintains a Facebook page followed by millions of Filipinos.

She has been accused of spreading false information online, but she maintains that she has corrected posts containing questionable assertions.

LATEST: Will this be senatorial line-up of PDP-Laban in 2019? Called to the stage at mass oath taking in Cebu were Roque, Uson, Tolentino, Roman, Benitez, and Nograles. pic.twitter.com/qnD9W60hXM

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Roque has long been rumored to be mulling a run for the Senate even before he was designated as presidential spokesperson to replace former spokesperson Ernesto Abella.

He was reported to be running for the Senate in 2016 but decided to seek a post at the House of Representatives as the nominee of the Kabayan Party-list.

Last month, Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III floated a list of names supposedly being considered by the ruling party for a run in the Senate although he emphasized then that the line-up was still "developing and evolving."

Pimentel's list is slightly different from the one presented by the speaker in Cebu where he led the oath taking of several politicians and personalities who switched allegiance to the PDP-Laban.

Missing on the speaker's list are the Senate president himself and House Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas (Ilocos Norte), and it is not clear if their absence is an indication that they will not be included in the line-up of candidates anymore.

READ: PDP-Laban shutting doors to new members to prepare for 2019

Pimentel is expected to face a legal problem should he choose to run for the Senate this year since the 1987 Constitution allows only two consecutive six-year terms for senators.

He served a little less than two years of his first term because he was locked in a electoral protest against Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri. Pimentel accused Zubiri of committing fraud during the 2007 elections.

Zubiri denied this and resigned from his post even before a decision was handed down by the Senate Electoral Tribunal. Pimentel took his oath of office in August 2011 and won a second term during the 2013 elections.

Fariñas, meanwhile, has reportedly begged off from a possible run in the Senate, and it is not clear if he has already made a final decision.

READ: Alvarez wants PDP-Laban to fill administration Senate slate

Before becoming PDP-Laban stalwarts, Roman, Benitez and Fariñas were members of the erstwhile ruling Liberal Party.

Tolentino, the MMDA chairman of former President Benigno Aquino III, failed to make it to the Senate in the 2016 polls.

He was supposed to run as a Liberal senatorial candidate but was dropped following a controversy involving a lewd dance performance by an all-girl group in the run-up to last year's national elections.

READ: Tolentino hit for allegedly sending sexy dancers as 'surprise gifts' to lawmaker