Abalos gunning for Senate post
INTERIOR and Local Government Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. is set to bid farewell to men and women of the Philippine National Police, the Bureau of Fire Protection and the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology today when he files his bid for a Senate seat in May 2025 before the Commission on Elections.
There is still no word however on who will replace the DILG chief who is running under the administration slate.
Appointed by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. as DILG secretary in 2022, Abalos was previously the chairman of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority.
He also served as five-term city mayor, as congressman and as councilor of Mandaluyong City.
Abalos was also the president of the League of Cities of the Philippines from 2007 to 2010.
Under Abalos, the PNP started a massive housecleaning which triggered the resignation of dozens of senior police officials linked to illegal drug activities and mounted a massive anti-drug campaign which resulted in the multi-billion shabu seizure and tens of thousands of arrests with minimal deaths compared to the previous Duterte administration’s bloody “war on drugs.”
