Bong Revilla to run for senator in 2019

FILE: Senator Bong Revilla with Senators Juan Ponce Enrile and Jinggoy Estrada after the Revilla’s speech Salamat, Kaibigan on June 9, 2014. (Photo By Alex Nuevaespaña – Public Relation and Information Bureau (original here), Senate of the Philippines, Public Domain)

MANILA — Detained former senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. is running for a Senate seat in the 2019 midterm elections.

Former Leyte Rep. and Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas CMD) president Martin Romualdez made the announcement on Friday.

“I am pleased and honored to officially announce the candidacy for the Senate of Sen. Bong Revilla Jr., our party chairman,” Romualdez said.

“This decision was reached after a series of consultations with his family, close friends, constituents and political leaders,” he added.

Romualdez said the party would also support the senatorial candidates to be endorsed by Hugpong ng Pagbabago, the regional party of presidential daughter and incumbent Davao City mayor Sara Duterte Carpio.

Revilla is detained at the Philippine National Police Custodial Center for his alleged involvement in the multi-billion peso anomaly involving the Priority Development Assistance Funds, or pork barrel funds, that were supposedly misappropriated under the direction of businesswoman Janet Napoles.

 (With reports from Joyce Ann Rocamora/PNA)