SPEAKER Pantaleon Alvarez said Monday he would want Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II to be included in the senatorial bets of the administration party Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino-Laban for the 2019 mid-term elections.
Alvarez, in his message as guest speaker at the 81st anniversary of the National Bureau of Investigation, said he believed Aguirre should be included in the administration’s 2019 senatorial ticket.
“I will support the candidacy of Vit Aguirre. I will talk to the President if we can include Secretary Vit Aguirre as one of our senatorial candidates to ensure the smooth passage of the administration-backed measures,” Alvarez said.
He said that out of over a hundred approved bills the House of Representatives endorsed to the Senate after the close of the First Regular Session of Congress, only about 10 had been enacted into laws.
To date, from the opening of the Second Regular Session of the 17th Congress, Alvarez said, the House had sent to the Senate for its action around 70 approved bills.
Alvarez said the government had made significant progress in realizing Duterte’s promise to go after illegal drugs and address rampant criminality.
However, Alvarez admitted that more needed to be done in the remaining four years of the Duterte administration to address poverty, the traffic gridlock and the slow delivery of social services.
“We need more people who can help the President bring about the changes that he has promised to the Filipino people,” Alvarez said.
“We will see to it that the President will be able to deliver all the campaign promises and commitment to the Filipino people.”
In the mass oathtaking of the new PDP members in Cebu last week, Alvarez nominated presidential spokesman Harry Roque and Assistant Secretary Margaux “Mocha” Uson to be among the senatorial candidates of PDP in 2019.
He also named Rep. Karlo Nograles (Davao City), Rep. Alfredo Abelardo Benitez (Negros Occidental), Rep. Geraldine Roman (Bataan) and former Metro Manila Development Authority Chairman Francisco Tolentino.
