Positioning, contest for 2028 presidential elections have begun — Lagman

THE positioning and contest for the 2028 presidential elections have begun even before the 2025 mid-term elections, thus said First District of Albay and Liberal Party president Rep. Edcel C. Lagman on Vice President Sara Duterte’s resignation from Lakas-CMD party on Friday.

Lagman said the stripping of Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of her Senior Deputy Speaker position and the subsequent resignation of Vice President Sara Duterte from the ruling Lakas-CMD party are obviously related.

It would be recalled that Arroyo and Duterte were the principal conspirators in the ouster of then Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and the ascendancy of the Arroyo as Speaker in  2018.

“The power play and intramurals in Lakas may result to further resignations by Arroyo and Duterte loyalists.  These political developments will have repercussions in the revamp of the Marcos cabinet,” Lagman added.

Lagman said the Liberal Party, as the principal opposition party, will be keenly watchful of further developments as they unfold.

Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte on Friday announced her irrevocable resignation as member of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) party.

“This is to announce my irrevocable resignation as a Lakas-CMD member effective today,” Duterte, who was the party’s chairperson prior to her resignation, said in a statement.

Though she did not mention the reason for her resignation, Duterte said the Filipino people’s trust in her to lead the country cannot be poisoned by “political toxicity” or undermined by “execrable political powerplay.”