「日刊まにら新聞」ウェブ

President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano will resign as he will run as representative in Taguig City.

Cayetano is one of the few Cabinet officials who will quit from their respective posts and run for the May 2019 midterm elections.

"Alan Peter Cayetano is also running," he said during a press conference after the oath taking of newly-elected officials of the Malaca?ang Press Corps at the Palace.

Cayetano's sister, Taguig Rep. Pia Cayetano will run for the Senate.

Duterte said that he has somebody to replace Cayetano but he could not divulge the name.

Other Cabinet officials who will seek elective posts are Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, Political Adviser Francis Tolentino, Agrarian Reform Secretary John Castriciones, Special Assistant to the President Christopher "Bong" Go, and Technical Education and Skills Development Director General Guiling Mamondiong.

Roque and Tolentino will run for senator.

While Roque said in a press briefing earlier in the day he had no final decision on his plan as he needed to talk to the President, Duterte said he could not understand what his spokesman really wants.

"So, I'm giving that margin of safety. He said he will resign because he didn’t know that I was in the hospital. So he was not informed. I don't need to tell him everything. There are things which are limited to the immediate members of the family," Duterte said.

"And of course if there’ something wrong, then I would communicate with the Cabinet members. Nothing of that sort happened so to say that I did not go (to the hospital). He (Roque) did not ask, so he felt that he was placed in a bad light. As if he was lying," he said.

Last Friday, Roque lamented he was kept in the dark about Duterte's going to the hospital and undergoing again some medical tests. This was after the President skipped an scheduled event last Wednesday.

Duterte said he is considering Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo to be his spokesman and at the same time the head of the Office of the Press Secretary, which is being reorganized to replace the Presidential Communications Operations Office.

PCOO Secretary Martin Andanar will be a consultant once Panelo takes over the OPS.

The filing of the certificate of candidacy (COC) for those who will run in next year's polls will be on Oct. 11-17. Once the COC is filed, the appointed official is deemed resigned from his or her post. Celerina Monte/DMS