MANILA - Former agriculture secretary Emmanuel Piñol on Friday filed his certificate of candidacy to join the 2022 Senate race.
Agriculture Secretary Manny Pinol speaks to poultry farmers in San Luis Pampanga on Tuesday. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News
Piñol is running under the ticket of senators Panfilo Lacson and Vicente Sotto III.
Earlier this week, Piñol resigned from President Rodrigo Duterte’s Cabinet, and also left ruling party PDP-Laban.
Piñol, Duterte’s former Agriculture secretary, said he left PDP-Laban after party officials declined to include him in the ruling party’s senatorial slate.
“Does my resignation and decision to run for a Senate seat outside of the party of President Duterte mean that I am parting ways with him or I am turning my back on him? No, never,” Piñol said on Facebook.
Before Duterte’s ascent to power, Piñol served as M’lang town mayor and North Cotabato governor from the 90s to the 2000s.