Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte with Sen. Allan Peter Cayetano during their proclamation as candidates for president and vice president, respectively, at the Century Park Hotel in Pasay City. (INQUIRER PHOTO)
The Partido Demokratikong Pilipino-Laban ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) has officially declared Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano as their official presidential and vice-presidential bets.
The proclamation was held at the Century Park Hotel in Manila yesterday afternoon.
Duterte was not the first presidential candidate of the party for the 2016 polls. PDP-Laban had backed anti-corruption advocate Martin Diño as its presidential bet.
However, Diño withdrew his candidacy after the Comelec sent him a letter to explain why he should not be declared a nuisance candidate.
With Diño’s qualification in jeopardy, PDP-Laban last October 27 named Duterte as its substitute presidential candidate.
Duterte officially declared his intention to run for president last Friday when he withdrew his certificate of candidacy for reelection as Davao City mayor and filed his COC for president.
Duterte has been firm on not running for president but changed his mind after the Senate Electoral Tribunal ruled that presidential poll front-runner Sen. Grace Poe is a natural-born Filipino and cannot be unseated from her office.
The tough-talking mayor said that he will not allow anyone to violate the Constitution.
“(Poe) will be presumptive president whose citizenship is based on presumption. The highest position is reserved for a true-blue Filipino,” Duterte earlier said when he put his candidacy “on the table” last Nov. 21.
Duterte yesterday said that he wants to be a hero as he laid out his plans should he be elected as president in next year’s elections.
“Why is it that no one from Visayas or Mindanao is recognized as a hero, want to be a hero?” Duterte said.
In his lengthy speech, he said that should he be elected as president, he would put an end to criminality, corruption and illegal drugs.
“Criminality has to stop. Corruption has to stop, although it may take longer,” Duterte said.
He said that he is running for president because he could not bear seeing Filipinos suffer.
“Hindi ako nagpapa-hero. Wala akong talent. But I will not allow anyone to continue inflicting suffering to Filipinos,” the feisty mayor said in a mix of English and Filipino.