MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte has lost some Cabinet members to the 2022 elections, but he will also retain a few of them who did not push through with their plan to join the polls. But Duterte will get to keep his spokesperson Harry Roque, who had hitched his possible senatorial run to the presidential run of Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte. Mayor Duterte did not file her COC for president, so Roque did not pursue his plan to join the Senate. But speculations continue that Mayor Duterte would later seek the presidency as a substitute candidate, similar to the ploy used by Duterte in 2016. “Just because the secretary will be gone does not mean there will be a leadership vacuum because there will always be an OIC,” Roque said in a briefing last week.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer October 09, 2021 21:33 UTC