MANILA (Agencies): Philippine presidential candidate, Leonor “Leni” Robredo, drew an estimated 412,000 people to a campaign rally—the biggest seen so far—on April 23, ahead of the upcoming May 9 polls.
The crowd, which also celebrated Robredo’s 57th birthday, gathered along Macapagal Avenue, in Pasay City, Manila, UCAN reported on April 25.
“I’m asking from all of you is to open our hearts, stretch our patience because this election is not a simple quarrel between us candidates. This election is bigger than all of us, because this is where we decide what our future would be, and what will happen to our country,” The Inquirer reported Robredo as telling the huge gathering.
“Because this is a fight for our countrymen. We need to open our hearts. Let us not be judging. We must respect the beliefs of others,” she urged the crowd.
Taking note of the disinformation that has been swirling around about her and her campaign, the incumbent vice president said, “I know that there [is much] fake news spreading about me especially if there is a slight increase in my survey rating.”
I’m asking from all of you is to open our hearts, stretch our patience because this election is not a simple quarrel between us candidates. This election is bigger than all of us, because this is where we decide what our future would be, and what will happen to our country
Leni Robredo
She said, “But let us not get tired of fighting fake news. You know, in the last six years, a lot of fake information has been said about me. I did not mind because I thought it was just a distraction. But I was wrong. We must immediately dismiss these … as lies. We must replace lies with the truth.”
UCAN reported that Robredo was presented with a declaration of support from the Clergy for Moral Choice, signed by 1,000 priests from across the archipelago, as a birthday gift.
Father Flavie Villanueva, a critic of outgoing president, Rodrigo Duterte, said the declaration was a response to a call in February by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines for Catholics to be defenders of truth against lies and historical revisionism.
The bishops were critical of election frontrunner, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., and his supporters who have been trying to paint the martial law years under his late father as golden years in Philippine history.
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“Like the call of our bishops, we too are observing, examining and reflecting on the upcoming election. We, too, have joined and participated in circles of discernment and consensus building in choosing the right leader the country deserves,” the priests said in the declaration.
The priests slammed critics who claimed they were barred by canon law from openly endorsing a political candidate. “It is much easier to keep quiet and to observe. But as ordained clerics, this is not consistent with our vocation, especially as to what society presently needs,” they said.
They called for support of said candidacy to prevent the return of another Marcos as leader of the country, UCAN reported.
“Our country is in danger of having a kind of leadership that had brought poverty and disdain to our motherland—a son and heir of his father who ruled the country for so many years. Under his 21-year rule, our country was in a desperate state and known as the ‘sick man of Asia’,” the Clergy for Moral Choice priests warned in their statement.
The group said it chose Robredo because of her qualities as a “servant leader,” the kind of leader the country presently needs.
Meanwhile Philstar.com reported on April 25 that the Commission on Elections said that it would no longer hold its final presidential and vice presidential town hall debates, supposedly scheduled for April 30 and May 1, and will instead air pre-taped interviews of the candidates.
