BY PETER TABINGO and ASHZEL HACHERO
OFFICIALS from the camp of presidential aspirant Sen. Manny Pacquiao yesterday said he had every intention to join Sunday’s joint press conference with three other presidential candidates at a hotel in Makati City, right until one them asked Vice President Leni Robredo to quit.
“Manny Pacquiao is a man of discernment and common sense. He has the political wisdom to not be a part of seedy and doubtful maneuvers. He will not join a comedy show like that,” deputy speaker and Pacquiao’s running mate Lito Atienza said in an interview with OneNews TV.
He said the original agenda was for five candidates — Pacquiao, Independent Panfilo “Ping” Lacson, Reporma Party standard-bearer Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso, former Duterte spokesman Ernesto Abella, and former defense secretary Norberto Gonzales — to come up with a common stand against survey front-runner former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
Aside from the retired boxing icon, another no-show is Abella who had another engagement for his own campaign.
Moreno, who continued to get flak for asking Robredo to withdraw from the presidential race, remained defiant yesterday, saying he would not apologize for or withdraw his call. He even asked Robredo to “stop being a bully.”
“Ako na nagsasabi at pinapanindigan ko lahat ng sinasabi ko (I will stand by what I previously said). Vice President Leni Robredo be a hero, withdraw, don’t be a bully,” he said.
“Give chance to the other candidates. Baka kami ang makapagpatagumpay ng gusto mo (Maybe we can succeed on what you really wanted). I don’t apologize on something that I believe is fair,” he added.
Moreno was third in a recent survey of 10 presidential candidates. Robredo is constantly is second place.
Moreno’s running mate, Willie Ong, disagreed with Moreno’s call for Robredo, or any other candidate, to withdraw.
“Dapat ba siya mag-withdraw, si VP Leni? Siyempre, ako, hindi. Go siya. Sa akin, go kayo lahat. Walang magpipigil (Does VP Leni need to withdraw? For me, no) ,” Ong said in a livestream on his Facebook page.
He said Robredo is qualified to run.
“Ano bang honest na tingin ko kay VP Leni? Sa akin, lawyer siya. Magaling siya. Magaling sumagot, matalino. Ito honest opinion ko ha (What honestly do I think of VP Leni? For me she is a lawyer. She is capable. She can answer any question, she is intelligent. This is my honest opinion),” Ong said.
“I told Mayor Isko when I came in last September that I will be myself. I will not engage in name calling on others. He can say his opinion since it is not my opinion. That was his experience),” Ong said in mixed Filipino and English.
Gonzales apologized yesterday to the Vice President, saying he felt “uncomfortable” when Moreno made the call.
“If you meet the Vice President, tell her I’m sorry. Yes, I’m apologizing to her because what we need is something better after the elections,” he told ANC’s Headstart. “I wasn’t comfortable there. Wala sa usapan (It was not part of the deal).”
He said Moreno may have been “carried away” when he made the demand because “there was no agreement whatsoever (to) ask someone to withdraw.”
Robredo’s spokesman Ibarra Gutierrez said that while their camp appreciates the gesture, there was no need for Gonzales to apologize.
Lacson said some people got the wrong impression that the press conference backfired on them.
“That was the impression created. We did not gang up on VP Robredo because it was clear that the press conference was meant to thwart or preempt reports that we are going to withdraw from the presidential race. I don’t think there is a backlash,” Lacson said during his campaign sortie in Estancia, Iloilo.
Lacson and Gonzales were also bashed on social media sites.
After the press conference on Sunday, Lacson said the event was not aimed at asking Robredo to quit.
Yesterday, he said he sees no reason for him to apologize to Robredo “because I didn’t call for VP Leni to withdraw. I just presented yung nangyari sa amin as it happened (I just presented what happened to us [during our past meetings] as it happened).”
Lacson also said Moreno’s call for Robredo to withdraw from the race caught him by surprise. “I did not see it coming.”
Lacson said his bashers were obviously trolls.
“I’ve seen a lot of that. They (trolls) will tell me that I am their supposed choice but they have changed their minds. That’s part of their intimidation. If they think the can intimidate us, I’m used to that. They are the rabid ones,” he said in mixed Filipino and English.
Robredo, accused of asking her rivals to quit, on Monday night urged her supporters to soldier on three weeks before election day, saying the truth will always prevail in the end no matter how hard others try to put her down.
At the campaign rally at the Boac Sports Arena in Marinduque, she asked supporters to be courageous “because we have the truth and truth always prevails over lies.”
She rallied her supporters to carry on and not to lose hope despite the bruising campaign, thanking them for standing by her and her running mate, Sen. Francis Pangilinan “and for fighting for the country.”
STOPPING MARCOS
Atienza said the real purpose of the press conference was to strategize to stop a potential Marcos victory.
“Bakit napunta kay Leni… di malaman ni Manny. Kaya sabi niya buti na lang hindi ako um-attend parang may nagbulong sa akin wag kang um-attend diyan, puro kalokohan lang mangyayari diyan (Why it turned against Leni … Manny does not have a clue. Which is why he is glad he could not show up, he had an inkling that something is off, and it would be foolish to go),” Atienza said.
Pacquiao’s campaign manager Salvador “Buddy” Zamora said the decision was taken out of the senator’s hands as his plane from General Santos landed too late at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport for him to make it to the press conference. By the time the plane touched down at 2 p.m. Sunday, the joint press conference was over.
Zamora said the aircraft had to circle the airfield for close to an hour because of inbound traffic.
He said Pacquiao had also wanted to address calls for him to withdraw from the race, aside from seeing the need to issue a unified stand for clean and honest elections.
He said Pacquiao does not support Domagoso’s call for Robredo to withdraw.
Atienza told CNN Philippines that he received several inquiries about Pacquiao’s whereabouts before and during the press conference supposedly because the senator had made a commitment to make an appearance.
However, he said he knew Pacquiao would not turn up once the other candidates started ganging up on Robredo who was not there to defend herself.
“Hindi si Marcos ang naging topic, sa opening remarks pa lang nakikita mo nang si Leni Robredo ang target. (It turned out Marcos was hardly mentioned, but Leni Robredo became the target). Eh hindi sasali si Manny Pacquiao diyan (Knowing Manny, he won’t tolerate that.) Manny Pacquiao won’t put down a person, especially one who is trying her best to overtake the number one. Pacquiao will not be as cruel as that,” Atienza said. — With Wendell Vigilia and Raymond Africa
