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' BaGoTo' Senate victory proves Duterte's
strong clout among Filipinos - solon
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The strong showirlg of President
Rodrigo Duterte's "top three" senato-
rial bets in the just-concluded midterm
elections proved Filipinos"'overwhelm-.
ing support" behind the administration.
reelected Camarines Sur 2nd district
Rep. LRay Villafuerte said.
"President Duterte has bucked ihe
conventional wisdom of an incumbent
chief executive turning less popular
and into a political lameduck after the
midtem polls on his or her watch," Vil-
lafuede said, pointing to the success of
former Special Assistant to the Presi-
dent Christopher "Bong" Go, former
Philippine National Police (PNp) chief
Ronaldo "Batg" dela Rosa, and former
Metropolitan Manila Development
Authority (MMDA) chairman Francis
Ttrlentino.
Go and Dela Rosa - both newbies in
the Senate race and perhaps the closest
personally to President-fnished third
and fifth respectively tallying 20.5 mil-
fion and tg million votes.
Meanwhile, Tolentino, who Davao
City Mavor Sara Duterte had described
in campaign sorties as his father,s
"favorite mayor. garnered I5.5 mitlion
votes for an impressive ninth place
finish. Tolentino is a former local chief
executive of Thgaltay.
The trio was informally dubbed
't P4ge - t6"'
"BdGoTo" during the campaign season.
Wllen the dust finally settled from the
polls, 11 out of the 12 winning senators
were endorsed by the populist Du-
terte.
According to Villafuerte, the results
showed the voters' support l,o the Presi-
denfs decisive leadership in steering
through Congress his prioritybills, such
as the ease of doing business, reform
taxation, liberalize rice trade, and other
bold reforms.
The outcome of the midterm
elections was likewisd a-vote of
eonfideace not only on President
Duterte's fast-tracked rollout of thq
"Build, Build, Build" program, on
which his high-growth agenda is an-
chored, but also on his astute foreign
policy rebalancing that has eiabled
the government to raise hundreds
of millions of dollars in official de-
velopment assistance (ODA) from
regional partners Japan, China and
South Korea for his anti-poverty and
pro-business programs
"More importantly, the results of
this year's elections was a show of the
people's overurhelming support for
the tough war that the President had
launched against the illicit driig trade
and other major crimes, in line with
his 2016 campaign pledge to make our
homes and streets safe again," Villa-
fuerte said.