Ernesto Abella, former foreign affairs undersecretary and ex-spokesperson for President Duterte, files his certificate of candidacy for president.
Abella, who recently resigned from his position as DFA, says he decided to run after realizing that the country is run by elites.
“Kaya ang umuunlad ay iilan at dumadami ang mahihirap,” Abella stated.
Abella intends to run as an independent candidate.
When Duterte took office in June 2016, Abella, a former pastor and social entrepreneur, took over as spokesperson. He joined the DFA in 2017 and was succeeded as Duterte’s spokesperson by Harry Roque.
Ernesto Abella is a Filipino businessman, author, and former evangelist who served as the Presidential Spokesperson for Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.
Abella previously worked as an executive with a Davao City-based agricultural products manufacturer and a local cooperative that he co-founded. He also founded a school in Davao and was a columnist for the local newspaper SunStar Davao.
Abella earned a degree from the Ateneo de Davao University’s high school in 1964. He earned a BA in pre-medicine from the same university in 1968. He began postgraduate studies at Silliman University in 1980, where he earned a master’s degree in Divinity in 1984. In 2005, he received a master’s degree in Social Development from the Asian Institute of Management.