Former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte gets into a private conversation with Francis Tolentino on January 3, 2019. VALERIE ESCALERA/PRESIDENTIAL FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — Senate Majority Leader Francis Tolentino said he still holds former President Rodrigo Duterte “in the highest esteem” despite being aligned with the current administration.
Tolentino made this remark as he lodged a certificate of candidacy (COC) for reelection here in the Manila Hotel tent on Tuesday.
READ: Senator Francis Tolentino seeks reelection
“I still hold former President Duterte in the highest esteem. There’s no bad blood, so to speak. I still respect him,” Tolentino said.
Tolentino noted that he aligned with President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s administration as he believed in the Chief Executive’s policies, particularly his economic and foreign policy.
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“What I did was not just a mere political decision. It has to be something aligned with my personal principles that one, for instance, in foreign policy,” Tolentino said.
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“But again, I align myself with the administration because I foresee that the current administration’s goals, specifically its eight-point economic development plan, would really offer help to the Filipino people,” he added.
Tolentino first became a Senator during the 2019 elections under Duterte’s Partido Demokratiko Pilipino or PDP (formerly PDP-Laban).
However, he left PDP “due to significant differences in our foreign policy directions, particularly regarding the West Philippine Sea.”
Tolentino is now part of the Marcos administration’s senatorial slate.
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