Antonio “Butch” Valdes, the founder and chairman of the Philippine LaRouche Society and founder of the Philippine Democratic Party (KDP — Katipunan ng Demokratikong Pilipino), today announced that he will seek the presidency of the Philippines in the May 9, 2022 election. Two of his party members will run for the Senate as part of the KDP slate, and more candidates may be added.
Butch has also been in contact over the past year with the organization of Emmanuel “Manny” Pacquiao, the world-famous boxer who is now a Senator and also presidential candidate. Pacquiao is a member of the PDP-Laban Party, which is the party of President Rodrigo Duterte, but the party has split between Duterte supporters and Pacquiao supporters. Duterte had been nominated as a candidate for Vice President (presidents are allowed only one term), but has now withdrawn. It is expected by many that his daughter Sara, now the mayor of Davao, may run for the presidency.
It is possible that some agreements may be reached between the Pacquiao campaign and Butch’s KDP campaign.
Butch has focused much of his party’s efforts on attacking the oligarchs who run the water and electricity utilities in the Phiippines, calling for nationalization of the utilities to relieve the population of the extreme costs, frequent brownouts, and lack of water which plague the nation. He has strongly supported the Belt and Road Initiative, has been interviewed regularly by the Chinese press, and conducted a widely watched interview with the Russian Ambassador to the Philippines. He and his son Itos have hosted a national Sunday night radio program for several dozen years, which has featured many members of the LaRouche organization from around the world (including several interviews with both Lyndon and Helga LaRouche), and often presents “classes” during the program on the American System of Economics and the work of Alexander Hamilton, FDR, and others. For the past several years he has also hosted a program on the KDP Facebook page several times per week, watched by Filipinos around the world.
His announcement on Facebook follows:
My dear friends and colleagues,
