Philippine leader’s party endorses presidential bid of Marcos Jr -media

MANILA, March 22 (Reuters) – The political party of Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte has endorsed Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s presidential bid, the Manila Standard reported on Tuesday, citing a resolution.

Officials of the ruling PDP-LABAN party did not respond to requests to confirm the news report, but said an announcement would be made at a news conference at 0200 GMT.

Marcos Jr, the son and namesake of the late Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, is leading in opinion polls by a wide margin ahead of the May 9 presidential election.

Marcos Jr’s running mate is Sara Duterte-Carpio, the Philippine president’s daughter, who earlier this month was endorsed by the ruling party as its vice-presidential bet.

(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales and Enrico dela Cruz
Editing by Ed Davies)

((neiljerome.morales@thomsonreuters.com; +632 8841 8914;))