(UPDATE) Sen. Bong Go said he was declining the endorsement of a PDP-Laban Party faction to run for president, with incumbent President Rodrigo Duterte as vice president, since he would rather work on pandemic response.
Go said that while he was honored, he had no intentions of seeking the presidency. Duterte last week heeded the call of the group led by his energy secretary, Alfonso Cusi, to seek the second highest post in the land.
"For a simple man who hails from a city in the South, the endorsement alone by esteemed members and officers of the National Executive Council is a great personal honor for me," he said in a letter addressed to Cusi, the faction's president.
"As much as I wish to respond to the clamor of many of our partymates, I most respectfully decline the said endorsement. As I have said many times before, I am not interested in the presidency," he added.
The senator, who chairs the Senate Committee on Health, said he would rather devote his time to helping the country overcome the COVID-19 pandemic. He added that he would leave his political future up to God.
Cusi, in response, told Go to reconsider his decision not to accept the party's endorsement.
"We are steadfast in our belief that you are the best candidate to tandem with President Duterte, and that the two of you are the best pair to lead our country forward," he said in a letter to Go.
"Now more than ever, we are convinced that we made the right choice. We earnestly hope that you will reconsider," he added.
In his taped address last week, Duterte confirmed his plan to run for vice president in the 2022 elections. But a portion of his speech was cut from the broadcast where he said where he said he would drop his bid should his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, run for president.
Duterte-Carpio also disclosed that her father personally told her that he would run for vice president next year with Go as vice president. He even asked her to either endorse the tandem or take Go as her vice presidential running mate.