Former president Gloria Arroyo said Saturday she was supporting presumptive president Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s cousin as the next speaker of the House of Representatives.
Arroyo's support for Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, also her political protege, means that their Lakas-CMD party is united behind one candidate for the top post in one of two branches of Congress.
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"I will be returning to the House on June 30, 2022. I would therefore like to advise the members of the Lakas-CMD that I am throwing my support for Majority Leader Martin Romualdez to be elected as House Speaker in the next Congress. I urge all members of our party to do the same," said Arroyo who ran unopposed in her district in Pampanga.
Arroyo served as speaker from 2018 to 2019, making her the only woman to have held the positions of Philippine president, vice president and speaker. She chairs Lakas with Romualdez as president.
When she was president, Romualdez accompanied Arroyo to her foreign trips, including her 2008 attendance to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
"Majority Leader Martin Romualdez and I have been working together for decades in a joint effort to do our best to serve the Filipino people. Since 2010, our partnership involved our service as fellow members of the House of Representatives," Arroyo said in a statement to reporters.