Duterte on Bongbong: We’re about to cross the Rubicon

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Even if Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has not yet confirmed his intention to run for president in the May 2016 elections, a number of politicians are seeking him out for meetings.

Just a night after Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano had dinner with Duterte, Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. also came here and had a two-hour closed-door audience with the mayor.

Duterte did not reveal details of the meeting, but hinted that he would get in touch with Marcos before the filing of certificates of candidacy for national positions on Oct. 12 to 16.

“We’re about to cross the Rubicon,” Duterte said, using an idiom which means to commit to a course of action and make a final decision.

Marcos described the two-hour meeting as a ‘general discussion on politics’ and nothing about the coming May 2016 elections. He added that he came to seek Duterte’s advice on how he would pursue his own political plans. 

“Actually, I just came here to ask the mayor’s advice on what I can do because we are getting closer to the filing (of certificates of candidacy). Many of these decisions, I have to make already. I have always sought his political advice for many years… and this is a continuation of that,” he said.

Marcos added that “it was not really a meeting. We just talked on political matters but it was a general discussion.”

Marcos earlier shunned the support of the Partido ng Manggagawa at Magsasaka (PMM), which he accused of spreading “false information” that he would run for president.

Marcos, like senators Cayetano and Antonio Trillanes IV, belongs to the Nacionalista Party (NP).

Both Cayetano and Marcos were reported to have offered themselves as Duterte’s running mate should he eventually decide to run for president in the May 2016 polls. 

Cayetano, with family members at his side, declared his intention to run for vice president in a Tuesday press conference here, a move widely seen as an indication of his wooing Duterte to make him a running mate should the latter decide to run for president. 

As speculations continue on the city mayor’s trying a presidential run next year, Duterte said he is not done yet with soul searching.

“I am still searching for my soul. I think I lost my soul. I do not know where it is now. That is why I am still searching for my soul,” Duterte quipped when asked how his soul-searching is going as the filing of certificates of candidacy draws nearer.

Abe Kapampangan may back Duterte

Meanwhile, Angeles City’s dominant party Abe Kapampangan is inclined to back Duterte next year after its members gathered on Wednesday to declare incumbent Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan as its re-electionist candidate.

Although the group has yet to declare support for any national political party, Pamintuan and other party members gave hints on supporting Duterte.

In his speech, Pamintuan, one of the Abe Kapampangan founders, cited only Duterte among the presidentiables as he vowed to strengthen the campaign against criminality in Angeles City.

“But we will not shoot people except perhaps the criminals, those riding in tandem,” Pamintuan said, in apparent mimic of Duterte who has been known to threaten to shoot dead criminals in Davao.

Last February, Pamintuan and Duterte signed a memorandum of agreement on the “sisterhood” of their cities to “nurture and encourage cooperation between the two local governments and their constituents.”

“Government sans boundaries – this is the goal that Mayor Duterte and I have in mind upon entering this agreement. Both our passions to better serve the people’s welfare will tremendously benefit both Angeles and Davao,” Pamintuan said during the agreement signing.

Some 167 barangay leaders from almost all of Angeles’ 33 barangays attended the Abe Kapampangan general assembly where lawyer Bryan Nepomuceno was also nominated as vice mayoral candidate along with 10 candidates for councilors.

Abe Kapampangan president Alex Cauguiran said the party still has to decide on which national political party to support in next year’s elections. “We are still open,” he said. – With Ding Cervantes, Non Alquitran