Senatorial candidate Rodante Marcoleta, who has been the frontrunner in shutting and depriving of ABS-CBN’s franchise, withdrew his senatorial bid last Wednesday, April 27.
In a press statement, Marcoleta said he decided to drop his senatorial bid following his “poor” rating in pre-election surveys. “The fighter in me should also be brave enough to read the writings on the wall,” Marcoleta said.
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, in a recent one-on-one interview with Marcoleta, revealed that he was one of the people who encouraged the lawmaker to run in the senate.
Marcoleta received praises from Duterte in an interview last April 9 in PTV-4 as “principled man, extremely honest and a [man] with integrity” and commended him as the most vocal legislator opposing the franchise renewal bid of local media giant ABS-CBN Corp.
Marcoleta thanked Duterte for the “positive and generous endorsement” of his candidacy for senator and thanked Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban), People’s Reform Party, and the UniTeam in including him in their respective senatorial slates
“I will be indebted forever to several people who chipped in their resources, time and tons of hardwork into my memorable campaign. I thank the hundreds of parallel support groups and thousand of volunteers who believed in my advocacies and the measures that must be pursued for the common good. I just hope that they will all be so kind and accommodating enough to understand,” Marcoleta stated.
Despite Marcoleta’s withdrawal, he was still committed on supporting the UniTeam tandem of former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Davao City Mayor Sara “Inday” Duterte.“The BBM-Sara tandem exemplifies the politics of unity and working together, despite the divergent political persuasions, for the sake of the motherland – an element that is conspicuously absent in other teams,” Marcoleta said.
Marcoleta also committed his full support to the senatorial candidates of the UniTeam and PDP-Laban.
Meanwhile, COMELEC Commissioner George Garcia said the poll body’s en banc has already accepted Marcoleta’s decision. “Confirmed. It was accepted by the Commission en banc earlier,” Garcia said in a Viber message.
He said Marcoleta submitted his statement of withdrawal on April 21.
“Yes, he went to my office, carrying with him his statement of withdrawal and I referred him to the law department,” and that Marcoleta’s reason of his withdrawal is “too personal” and “I’m not at liberty to disclose,” Garcia said.
The poll body official, however, said Marcoleta still has to submit his Statement of Contributions and Expenditures (SOCE) a month after the election.
Photo Credit: Facebook/Cong.RodanteMarcoleta