MANILA (UCAN): Philippine presidential candidate and incumbent vice president, Leonor “Leni” Robredo, shrugged off calls from several of her rivals for her to stand down and quit the electoral race.
Manila mayor and actor, Francisco Domagoso—who goes by the stage name Isko Moreno—former lawmaker, Panfilo Lacson, and former defense secretary, Norberto Gonzales, called a joint press conference on Easter Sunday and urged her to withdraw from the upcoming May polls.
This came despite opinion polls showing Robredo a clear second in the presidential race with about 24 per cent of support behind frontrunner, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., with about 56 per cent. The others, however, trailed in the single-digits.
“The number two in the surveys should do and start the supreme sacrifice. Let Leni withdraw. Withdraw, Leni, if you love your country. I’m calling for Leni to withdraw because whatever you’re doing is not effective against Marcos,” Domagoso insisted.
Accusing her of breaking a promise not to stand in the polls, he called on Robredo to step aside and join him or one of the other candidates.
Manny Pacquiao, who is also running for president, did not join in the call for Robredo to withdraw. His campaign manager, Buddy Zamora, told ABS-CBN, “Senator Pacquiao believes the choice is up to the people. Since everybody filed candidacy for presidency, he’d want the choice to be coming from the people …”
Robredo’s supporters said Domagoso, who ranked third in the latest election surveys, was resorting to desperate measures.
“Never in the history of Philippine elections has a person in second place in surveys been asked to quit by those below her. Where did they get the nerve to call Vice President Robredo to quit simply because they are lagging behind her?” asked one Robredo supporter, Margie Caspian.
Robredo, however, said she had no reason to quit, especially now that her campaign was gaining momentum.
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“With three weeks to go before election day, we are at a time of great momentum for our People’s Campaign and increasing clarity as regards which candidates can count on the people’s support when they enter voting booths on May 9,” Robredo’s spokesperson and lawyer, Barry Gutierrez, said in a statement.
Robredo said that running in an election is a legal right and the candidate may choose to finish the electoral race or not.
“From the start, it has been the prerogative of every candidate to continue till the end, the same as it is the choice of a candidate to disregard surveys, rally attendance, endorsements or any other conventional measure of support,” she added.
LiCAS News reported Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan, as cautioning people during his celebration of the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord’s Supper on April 14, against electing candidates “who act like kings” instead of being servant leaders.
“It is important to ask in May … Who among the candidates would act like bosses, and who would act like a servant, who would not be ashamed to wash others’ feet?” Bishop David, the head of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, was quoted as saying.
Jose Cardinal Advincula of Manila also warned, “There are many leaders in the world who only want all the opportunities to serve for themselves. They do not want to share the chance to serve. They want to be the only centre of attraction.”
He said that they would do everything to remain in power and treat the weak as dependents.
