by Miriam G. Desacada
Tacloban City–House Minority Leader Marcelino “Nonoy” Libanan, publicly known to be a staunch supporter of the Marcos administration’s programs, confirmed to the media that he was asked to withdraw his plans to run for congressman of the lone district of Eastern Samar.
Libanan, incumbent representative of the 4Ps party-list, has positioned himself to run this time for the congressional district seat of his home province against re-electionist Fe Abunda, also a Marcos ally.
Libanan disclosed that he was dissuaded not to pursue his plans to run against Abunda by President BongBong Marcos Jr (PBBM) and House Speaker Martin Romualdez themselves.
Obviously, this was a discouraging news to the supporters of Libanan who reportedly already has a full slate of probable local candidates to run under his political roster and that they were already scheduled to file their certificates of candidacy (COCs) this October 8, the last day of filing at the Comelec.
Libanan’s candidates and supporters were reportedly disheartened by this turn of events, commenting that Libanan has been openly backing the programs and projects of the Marcos administration that aligned with his goals, especially for the welfare of his fellow Estehanons.
It had been reported before that it was Speaker Romualdez who gave the “go” signal on Libanan’s political alliance with incumbent Governor Ben Evardone, a re-electionist also but not in political alliance with Abunda, who apparently is the preference of Romualdez this time for Eastern Samar’s congressional seat.
Libanan said he was told by the Speaker that he should put off his 2025 plan to run against Abunda to avoid a clash among administration candidates for the sake of the principles of unity that the Marcos administration had been spousing since.
Libanan did not expound yet on this matter, telling the media that he will be holding a press conference today in Borongan City, capital of Eastern Samar.
But he hinted that he might run for reelection instead as representative of 4Ps partylist. —-Miriam G. Desacada