TWO-TERM District 2 Councilor Ranulfo Ludovica of Quezon City may run for Congress in 2019 “if and only when” District 2 Rep. Winston Castelo is chosen by the ruling Partido Demokratiko ng Pilipinas-Lakas ng Bayan to run as vice mayor “under the lineup of Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte.”
In an interview Thursday, Ludovica said should the PDP-Laban endorse Castelo’s vice mayoralty bid, the lawmaker’s wife, three-term District 2 Councilor Precious Hipolito-Castelo, would drop her political ambition to seek a congressional seat.
“That’s what he [Castelo] said to me,” Ludovica told the Manila Standard.
Belmonte, daughter of District 4 Rep. Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte Jr.—the city’s former three-term mayor and former House Speaker—has confirmed she will run for mayor in the 2019 elections, with last-term District 3 Councilor Gian Carlo Sotto as her running mate.
The incumbent vice mayor said Sotto, son of Senator Vicente Sotto and veteran actress Helen Gamboa, was the “only choice” to succeed her in 2019.
The younger Belmonte, Sotto and the Castelos have jumped ship to PDP-Laban from the Liberal Party.
Ludovica, an independent candidate since he first ran as councilor, said PDP-Laban shall decide on who to endorse as its standard bearers even in a local election.
“Take a look at what happened in the vice presidential race in 2016. Quezon City voted and made then senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. win here over now Vice President Leni Robredo, who was endorsed by the ruling (Liberal) party,” he said.