After dropping from Senate race, Marcoleta to return as Sagip party-list rep
MANILA, Philippines — Rodante Marcoleta, a senatorial candidate in the May polls who dropped out of the race due to poor showings in surveys, is set to return to Congress after the Commission on Elections approved his substitution as nominee of Sagip party-list.
Comelec spokesperson John Rex Laudiangco announced Friday that the second, third, fourth and fifth nominees of Sagip withdrew and were subsequently replaced by other nominees, including Marcoleta — a move that was approved by the poll body.
With Sagip having won two seats in the elections, Marcoleta would get to resume his post party-list representative in the 19th Congress and would serve alongside Oriental Peninsula Resources CEO Caroline Tanchay.
This is at least the second time that the Comelec gave due course to a substitution in a party-list group after the elections, following former poll body commissioner Rowena Guanzon’s ascension as first nominee of P3PWD party-list, which would allow her to sit in Congress.
Marcoleta gained notoriety at the height of the House of Representatives’ hearings on ABS-CBN’s franchise application as he was among the lawmakers who led the charge against the media giant which ultimately led to its shutdown on free TV causing several areas to become news deserts and leading to thousands of job losses.
On the campaign trail with the tandem of President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President-elect Sara Duterte, Marcoleta harped on his participation in the ABS-CBN shutdown as one of his achievements.
But despite having risen to a degree of fame and the backing of the leading candidates for the top two elective posts in the country, Marcoleta’s numbers were not enough to carry him to the Senate which prompted him to drop out of the race ahead of election day.
After the dust from the elections settled, however, it was announced that Marcoleta was being eyed by Marcos as energy chief, but no confirmation was made from the Marcos campaign team. — Xave Gregorio with a report from Kaycee Valmonte
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