PANGASINAN, Philippines – Liberal Party (LP) standard bearer and president-on-leave Manuel Roxas II on Wednesday, October 21, called on former senator Richard Gordon to give the names of the LP members who supposedly asked him to file a disqualification case against survey front-runner Senator Grace Poe.
“Sa lahat po na [nagsasabing] merong lumapit daw na ganito, ganoon… sabihin na lang kung [ano] ang pangalan. Sabihin kung sino ito para ma-imbestigahan namin, kung kinakailangan na maparusahan namin eh mapaparusahan,” Roxas told reporters on the sidelines of a relief operation in Mangatarem, Pangasinan.
(To anyone who’s saying someone approached for this or that… just tell us the name. Tell us the name so we can launch an investigation, so if we need to sanction them, we’ll sanction them.)
Gordon, in an interview on Tuesday, October 20, said members of the ruling LP and the opposition United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) had asked him to file a disqualification case against Poe. He did not specify, however, who those LP and UNA members were.
“Ang punto dito ay hindi naman po tama na broadcast, na 'bato-bato sa langit ang matamaan ay huwag magalit' dahil wala naman pong tinutukoy. Parati na lang member of LP. Marami ho kaming member ng LP,” added Roxas.
(The point here is that it isn’t right to broadcast when you don’t mention a name. It’s always ‘a member of the LP.’ There are a lot of LP members.)
Poe, who leads the latest presidential preference polls, faces disqualification cases over her citizenship and residency. Gordon is running under his own political party, Bagumbayan, but will be a guest candidate in both the UNA and Poe slates.
Roxas himself has said that he believes Poe is a Filipino citizen and has said that Poe should be able to answer the accusations thrown against her easily. The LP president-on-leave tried to convince Poe to run as his vice president but the senator eventually chose to vie for the presidency herself.
The LP and Roxas eventually picked another neophyte legislator, Camarines Sur Representative Maria Leonor "Leni" Robredo, to be his running-mate. Roxas and Robredo were both in Pangasinan on Wednesday to give relief goods to victims of Typhoon Lando (international codename Koppu).
Dirty tactics, said Roxas, is a sure ticket out of the ruling LP.
“Malinaw na malinaw sa amin ni Leni [Robredo] that the way we campaign is the way we govern. Malinis, tapat, diretso. So kung meron mang gumagawa ng mga bagay na ito ay of course, iimbestigahan natin at kung ano man ang kinalalabasan ay pagpapasyahan natin ito,” he said.
(It’s clear to me and Leni [Robredo] that the way we campaign is the way we govern. Clean, honest, straight. So if anyone in the LP resorts to these tactics, we’ll investigate and based on the results, we’ll decide.)
Both Roxas and Robredo were quick to emphasize that their 2-day visit to different Lando-hit provinces was not for their campaign but was a way to help. Still, the two could not dodge questions about politics along the way.
It’s not the first time in recent weeks that the LP has had to answer allegations of using dirty tactics in the lead-up to the 2016 national elections. Last week, Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said it was the Roxas team who was behind the rumors that he had cancer.
Duterte’s supporters have been pushing him to run for president but the mayor instead opted for re-election. – Rappler.com