MANILA – Government resources cannot be used during the campaign for the 2019 midterm elections, President Rodrigo Duterte stressed.
“I’ll announce to the country now that we make a pledge: There will be an election and it will be an honest one,” Duterte said during the Philippine Army Change of Command and Retirement Ceremony.
“Nobody but nobody can use government resources, not even Bong. I will not allow it,” he said in a speech at the Monday event in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, referring to outgoing Special Assistant Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go.
Go, the President stressed, “is not my aide anymore.”
“The moment he signed his certificate of candidacy at the Comelec (Commission on Elections), he ceased to be a government employee. He ran (for an elective position),” Duterte added.
In addition, the President appealed to the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police “not to indulge in partisan politics.”
“Let us make a deal here to make a commitment to the Filipino people: this elections strictly neutral tayong lahat,” Duterte said.
“I will endorse and campaign for certain candidates but those in the Armed Forces should not,” he added./PN
