MANILA, Philippines – Senatorial candidate and former Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson on Tuesday disclosed why he is endorsing Liberal Party’s (LP) standard bearer Manuel “Mar” Roxas II and agreed to become a guest candidate for the administration.
Lacson said that although all presidential candidates are his friends, he chose to endorse Roxas because of his previous experience with him back when Lacson was being pinned down as the suspect in the Dacer-Corbito murder case.
“May personal reason ako for endorsing Secretary Mar, it’s not because I don’t like the others, they’re all my friends. Some of them are even my close friends pero meron akong experience when they were still undecided as being accused or charged dun sa kaso ni Dacer-Corbito,” Lacson said at the Pandesal Forum in Quezon City.
Lacson said that the Dacer-Corbito case tagged him in an assassination plot in Greenhills when he was actually at the United States with former President Joseph Estrada, mining executive Mike Toledo and Roxas.
Lacson recounted that he asked Roxas to be his lone witness for the case, which the presidential candidate willingly accepted. He added that Roxas was supposed to head to a flight for his honeymoon with Korina Sanchez-Roxas but he still volunteered to head to the Department of Justice to submit his affidavit.
Lacson, who is currently campaigning for a senatorial seat, said he valued Roxas’s gesture that is why it was not hard for him to agree to become his guest candidate.
“I give so much high premium to utang na loob. When you’re down and almost out, and there are people willing to help you and willing to stand for the truth and even sacrifice some personal comforts hindi ko 'yun nakakalimutan e,” Lacson said.
“So when he invited me to be a guest candidate I was the one who even reminded him that if only for that iku-kwento ko sa 'yo baka nakalimutan mo na,” he added.
Aside from LP, Lacson was also chosen by the opposition party, United Nationalist Alliance as their guest senatorial candidate.
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