MANILA, Philippines — Lakas-CMD president and House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez rejected the possibility of a term-sharing agreement between Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio and former Sen. Bongbong Marcos for the presidency.
“In my opinion, I don’t think that is necessary to even consider a termshare,” Romualdez said in a press conference on Friday.
Lakas-CMD co-chairman and Quezon Gov. Danilo Suarez floated Thursday night the possibility of Duterte-Carpio and Marcos sharing the presidency, with them equally splitting the six-year term in Malacañang.
“It's just an opinion, a personal opinion that if the party is having difficulty in deciding who to pick, then this can be an option,” Suarez said partly in Filipino in an interview on Teleradyo.
Should this agreement between Duterte-Carpio and Marcos be forged one of them would have to run as president, while the other would run as vice president. Once in power, whoever is elected president would have to give way three years into their presidency by resigning from their post to allow the vice president to take their place.
While Romualdez is not onboard with the prospect of Duterte-Carpio and Marcos sharing the presidency, he said he and Lakas-CMD are hoping that the two will eventually form an alliance for the 2022 elections.
“We’re all hoping for that for them to work together. And I think the discussions between the two have been along those lines. We’re thinking very positively about this,” he said.
Speculations are rife that Duterte-Carpio and Marcos will team up for next year’s polls, but the Davao City mayor has been mum on her next steps, while the former senator has been bent on continuing his run for president. — Xave Gregorio