Moreno gets flak for Robredo quit call, cries ‘social injustice’
BY WENDELL VIGILIA and ASHZEL HACHERO
AFTER three of her rivals in the presidential race tried to discredit her last Sunday, Vice President Leni Robredo urged her supporters not to engage in a word war with those attacking her, telling them they must not be sidelined because “you have a country to fight for.”
The opposition leader rallied her supporters to campaign for her victory instead.
“Mula bukas (Lunes), 20 campaign days na lang natitira. Kailangan wag tayong magpatalo sa emosyon. Huwag nang magbitaw ng masasakit na salita. Focus lang muna tayo sa kampanya — tao sa tao, puso sa puso. May bayan tayong kailangan ipaglaban (Starting tomorrow, only 20 campaign days are left. We can’t let our emotions get the best of us.
Let’s not utter hurtful words. Let’s focus on the campaign — person to person, heart to heart. We have a country to fight for),” she said in a Facebook post on Easter Sunday night.
Earlier on Sunday, Sen. Panfilo Lacson, Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso, and former national security adviser Norberto Gonzales, held a joint press conference where they said Robredo’s camp is behind moves to pressure them to withdraw from the race, and other allegations. Moreno even asked Robredo, who has been consistently in second place in surveys, to withdraw from the presidential race.
Moreno has been drawing flak for demanding that Robredo make the “supreme sacrifice” of withdrawing even if she appears to have the best chance among nine presidential bets to beat survey front runner Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
Lacson, for his part, has said he believes Marcos’ survey numbers continue to be consistently high because of disgust with Robredo’s alleged double talk, noting she earlier said she was not seeking the presidency and only wanted to form a unified ticket with him, Moreno and another presidential bet, Sen. Manny Pacquiao who did not join the press conference at the Manila Peninsula hotel in Makati City.
Robredo’s camp has been making it clear that the Vice President has not asked other presidential candidates to withdraw even if some of her supporters believe it should happen to increase her chances of beating Marcos Jr.
In Lacson’s case, Robredo supporter former Quezon City mayor Jun Simon said last week he acted on his own when he urged the senator to give up his bid and “release” his running mate Senate President Vicente Sotto III since his close friend Sotto still has a good chance of winning the vice presidential race, especially if he would tandem with Robredo.
Robredo’s spokesman Ibarra Gutierrez said they have been “very, very clear on our position” that Robredo is sticking it out with her running mate Sen. Francis Pangilinan until the end of the elections.
Gutierrez said the Vice President’s camp has been consistent in its stand since she declared her presidential bid: that there will be no more efforts to try to form a unified ticket with the other bets after the initiative failed last year.
“Following the talks that unfortunately did not lead to a unified slate, our position has been, we are no longer pursuing this actively, but if people will want to talk, we are open to talking,” he said.
‘SOCIAL INJUSTICE’
Moreno, standard bearer of Aksyon Demokratiko party, yesterday said the flak he got on social media over his call for Robredo to withdraw her presidential bid is a form of “social injustice.”
Moreno made the remarks in an ambush interview with reporters in Surigao City where he and his team campaigned a day after the press conference.
“Parang there is social injustice na parang ang may karapatan lang na magsalita ay yung mga malalaking tao o matataas ang katungkulan (It seems there is social injustice here, as if only the mighty and influential have the right to voice out their sentiment),” Moreno said.
“Kapag malaking tao ang nangbu-bully, okay lang. Kapag ang ordinaryong tao nangatwiran, bastos o masama na (If an influential person is bullying another, it is okay. If an ordinary person reasons out, he is ill-mannered or bad),” he added.
Moreno insisted there was nothing wrong with his withdraw call.
“It was an honest call, a fair call,” he said, adding it was his way of giving his rival a dose of her own medicine, as he alleged her camp has been persistently intensifying calls for other candidates to withdraw.
He said the persistent call of Robredo’s camp for withdrawal of the other candidates only points to the brand of elitist politics she is practicing.
“My question is: Ano ang karapatan mo na hingin sa amin, bilang ikaw ay kakompetensya namin, na mag-withdraw? Ano ang karapatan mo? Dahil ikaw ay mataas na tao, at itong mga tao sa ibang kandidato, hindi ganun kalaki ang political alliances (My question is: What right do you have to ask us to withdraw? Is is because you are an influential person, and your rivals do not have that big political alliances)?” Moreno said.
Asked if he is not concerned that his call would only turn off voters who might support him, including supporters of the Vice President, Moreno said he needs all the support he can get but he would not take back what he said.
He said he is confident the “silent majority” will go for him instead of the feuding Robredo and Marcos camps.
Moreno also accused the Robredo camp of engaging in dirty tricks with the resurfacing on social media of a photo showing him dining with Marcos Jr.
The photo showing Moreno and Marcos dining with former LRTA General Manager Mel Robles resurfaced hours after the press conference.
He said the picture was taken in February 2021 inside the Emerald Restaurant in Manila where he was invited to cut the ribbon for the reopening of the said business establishment.
He said there was no truth to insinuation that the photo showed he is teaming up with Marcos Jr.to gang up on Robredo.
“Nag-cut ako ng ribbon tapos kinasal yung may-ari which was supposed to be a surprise for the long-term partner,” Moreno said.
He said Robredo’s camp, which he called “dilawan,” is being behind the resurfacing of the photo.
‘PLANTED’ QUESTIONS
Senate President Vicente Sotto III said he was “surprised” with the line of questioning made by some members of the media which diverted the issues to Robredo instead of just sticking to main topic of the joint press conference,
“Masagwa ang mga tanong ng media. Yung open forum, ang tanong doon napunta kay VP, di ba? (The questions of some members of the media are improper. The line of questioning was diverted towards VP [Vice President Robredo], isn’t it?),” Sotto said in a chance interview in Cebu City where he graced the 145th birth anniversary of his grandfather Vicente Yap Sotto.
He said the message of the three candidates was very simple — they are not withdrawing from the race contrary to speculations, and that they will unite “to fight anything to subvert a clean, honest, and orderly elections.”
“Pero my take is that the joint statement was clear and direct. They should have confined it to that. Even the media, in the open forum nila, dapat yun kinonfine nila doon sa laman ng joint statement (should have confined their questions to the meat of the joint statement),” he added.
Lacson, Moreno, and Gonzales held a joint press conference last Sunday to announce they are not backing out of the race despite numerous attempts, they said, by the Robredo camp to ask them to withdraw in her favor.
Sotto said the three presidential candidates were clear that they are offering themselves to the voters until some members of the media apparently redirected the issue towards Robredo.
“I was surprised at the questions of the media. Parang mga planted ang questions na papunta kay VP Leni at BBM (Marcos). Reactions naka-concentrate kay VP Leni. Wala doon yun sa joint statement (It looks like the questions were planted so that it will lead to VP Leni and BBM. The reactions [sough from the three presidential candidates] are concentrated on VP Leni). Not in the joint statement),” Sotto said.
The swerve towards Robredo started when a member of the media asked the three presidential candidates to identify the person/s or camp that is convincing them to withdraw. The three said it was apparently from the camp of Robredo.
Another member of the media asked if there is a “bigger hand behind these moves,” to which Lacson replied “I don’t know if the vice president herself knows about this.”
The most surprising question was when another member of the media asked for the three candidates’ reaction on what they think of Robredo’s supposed statement that chaos will reign if she will lose in the May 9 elections.
Lacson asked the reporter if he was sure that Robredo said that, to which the reporter answered in the affirmative.
Lacson replied: “Very irresponsible, uncalled for.”
A follow-up question to that was if Lacson thinks Robredo’s alleged alliance with the “reds” was where she gets the courage to create chaos if she loses.
Lacson said he does not want to speculate.
Lacson clarified that the joint press conference was held not because they have a grudge on Robredo.
Aksyon Demokratiko chairperson Ernest Ramel said the call for Robredo’s withdrawal from the presidential race was not part of the agenda for the press conference.
He blamed media for what had happened saying that they “unfairly” framed the elections as a two-way race between Robredo and Marcos.
“That’s why it went to that conversation na naging anti-Leni Robredo na is because it’s the media who put those questions in and of course eventually the sentiments ng candidates came out about her. It was that way because of the questions by the media, they keep on pounding on issues by VP Leni Robredo,” Ramel told ABS-CBN News Channel.
“That’s why the gentlemen obliged them,” he added.
“Galing na naman yan sa dilaw. Marumi talaga maglaro ang dilaw (It’s from the Yellows who really play dirty),” he said, without stating evidence to his claim.
PROBE
PNP chief Gen. Dionardo Carlos said the PNP will look into an alleged plot to sabotage the national and local elections, as claimed by Sen. Panfilo Lacson and other presidential candidates.
“We will get the details from Sen. Lacson so we can look into it,” Carlos told a press briefing at the PNP national headquarters in Camp Crame.
Carlos said PNP director for operations Maj. Gen. Valeriano de Leon is closely monitoring the elections but “we have no major report of such (plot).”
“So we will get it from Sen. Ping Lacson,” said Carlos.
Lacson, Moreno, and Gonzales earlier warned of a possible attempt to destabilize the elections. Lacson, however, said they have yet to validate the information.
Carlos also said they will coordinate with the camp of Robredo about reports attributed to their camp that violence will erupt in case she will not win.
“Did she make that statement? We will look into it. We can get it also. As far as we are concerned, we don’t see anything that would hamper or derail the election up to May 9,” said Carlos.
MORE BACKERS
Clergymen continue to back the tandem of Robredo and Pangilinan in their respective presidential and vice presidential bids in the May 2022 polls.
In a statement of support, the clergy members of the Diocese of Malaybalay declared support to Robredo and Pangilinan who they said “best exemplify the criteria for good leaders.”
“After careful discernment of the candidates presenting themselves for election as President and Vice President on May 9, 2022, we, the undersigned members of the clergy of the Diocese of Malaybalay, are moved to publicly support the candidacies of VP Leni Robredo and Sen. Kiko Pangilinan,” said the Bukidnon clergy.
“We believe that they best exemplify the criteria for good leaders, who will accompany the people towards a sustainable future for our country,” they said. — With Raymond Africa, Victor Reyes and Gerard Naval
