Romualdez to seek reelection in 2025

House Speaker Martin Romualdez. PHOTO BY J. GERARD SEGUIA

(UPDATES) SPEAKER Martin Romualdez said he intends to seek re-election as Leyte's 1st district representative in the 2025 elections.

In a chance interview with reporters after the groundbreaking of the National Kidney and Transplant Institute's 13-story Hemodialysis Building, Romualdez was asked about his electoral plans, including the possibility of seeking a seat in the Senate.

"Maybe I will remain in the first district of Leyte, then I will just do my work, as there are many [laws] that needed to be passed," Romualdez said in Filipino.

He also dismissed plans for the 2028 national elections, saying it's too early to discuss it.

His plans for 2025 come after Vice President Sara Duterte said her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte, and her two brothers, Davao City 1st District Rep. Paolo Duterte and Davao City Mayor Sebastian Duterte, will run for the Senate in 2025.

The vice president also revealed that Sebastian aims to run for president in 2028, quoting her mother, Elizabeth Zimmerman-Duterte.

Romualdez acted as the campaign manager of the then-Davao City mayor when she ran for vice president in 2022 after joining the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) in 2021.

But in May last year, Sara quit the party after the controversial demotion of then-senior deputy speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, whom Duterte considers her staunchest political ally, after some House members alleged that there was a planned coup against Romualdez.

Relations deteriorated further when Duterte did not address the President's middle name during a speech months after she resigned from the party, while also calling someone ambitious "tambaloslos," the Bisaya term for a mythical creature who has a large mouth and a large penis.

Romualdez returned to the House of Representatives in 2019 after serving nine years as Tacloban's 1st district representative from 2007–2016.

He ran for senator in 2016 but placed 15th, three places shy from winning a seat.