Special Assistant to the President Bong Go. (OP photo)
MANILA – Special Assistant to the President (SAP) Christopher Lawrence ‘Bong’ Go continued to draw support from overseas Filipino workers (OFWS) as he assisted President Rodrigo Duterte in his three-day trip in South Korea.
Go, a long-time top aide of Duterte, got the loudest cheers from nearly 2,000 Filipinos when the President mentioned his name as a possible senatorial candidate in the 2019 mid-term polls during Duterte’s meeting with Filipino community in Seoul last Sunday.
Despite growing calls for him to run for the Senate, Go said he remains undecided whether to throw his hat in the political arena.
“I don’t want to talk politics yet. I’m not thinking it yet. I said I should leave everything to God like what President Duterte did. He said he would leave it to God. It’s a destiny,” Go said in a media interview on June 3.
Duterte, former mayor of vastly-improved Davao City for 23 years, upset the heavyweights of the Philippine politics in 2016 elections despite having no political machineries as compared to his opponents including administration candidate and former senator Mar Roxas.
It was Duterte who enticed his top aide for the last 20 years to try politics, and more personalities and groups have joined the call for Go to run for senator.
Go said the support of the President would make a big impact if he will decide to run.
“First, it is because he (Duterte) knows me very well, on how I worked with him for the last 20 years and on what I can do in the government,” Go said.
For the meantime, Go said he would continue to serve the President as his special assistant to make sure that the government’s programs particularly the fight against corruption and illegal drugs will succeed.
“What I’m thinking now is to help President Duterte to achieve the change that he is doing now. All of us know that the President is sincere to serve our nation,” he said.
Go said even the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino–Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) has not yet discussed the administration’s possible 12-member senatorial line-up for 2019 elections.
“There is none, even an initial list has not been made,” he said. (PNA)
