Then police chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar speaks to the members of the press during the launch of body-worn cameras (BWC) for police personnel held inside the Camp Crame in Quezon City on June 4, 2021. George Calvelo, ABS-CBN News
MANILA - Presidential aspirant Panfilo "Ping" Lacson on Saturday confirmed that recently retired Philippine National Police chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar will gun for a Senate seat under his ticket with Senate President Vicente Sotto III in 2022.
Eleazar, Lacson added, will replace Paolo Capino, a persons with disability advocate who formally withdrew his certificate of candidacy (COC) on Friday.
This development came 3 days before the Commission on Elections' (Comelec) deadline to substitute an official candidate of a political party or coalition who withdrew.
Lacson and Sotto this week hinted at the possibility, with the two lawmakers saying that the former police chief should tell them what his plans are.
"Whatever you are planning in your life, let us know," Sotto said in a Senate session this week, laughing.
Eleazar, 56, retired as chief of the Philippine national police this week, serving as head of the force for some 6 months.
In July, he said he "does not want to entertain" calls for him to run in next year's elections.
Eleazar was commander of the PNP Task Force COVID Shield and was also chief of the Metro Manila regional police office.
Former PNP chief Ronald "Bato" dela Rosa had sought and won a Senate seat after pioneering the administration's drug war. Lacson was also a PNP chief before his foray into politics.
- With a report from Jauhn Etienne Villaruel and Sherrie Ann Torres, ABS-CBN News
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