MANILA, Philippines — Presidential aspirant Vice President Leni Robredo and her running mate Sen. Francis Pangilinan will hold a proclamation rally in Camarines Sur on Feb. 8, kicking off the start of the official campaign period for national candidates.
Camarines Sur is the home province and bailiwick of Robredo.
Lorenzo Tañada lll, campaign manager of the senatorial slate of Team Robredo-Pangilinan (TRoPa), said the 12 senatorial candidates were invited to join the proclamation rally.
“We are really preparing for the big proclamation rally to be held in Camarines Sur on Feb. 8 and on Feb. 9 in various places in the Bicol region. So, all 12 named by our Vice President are invited to attend on Feb. 8 and Feb. 9 activities in Naga and Albay,” Tañada said in an interview on dzXL’s “BISErbisyong Leni” radio program.
He said the team would be in Camarines Sur on Feb. 8 and in Sorsogon and Albay on Feb. 9.
Tañada said the senatorial bets are also expected to take part in the Stationary Caravan around Taal Lake in Batangas.
Robredo’s senatorial slate include Senators Risa Hontiveros and Leila de Lima, former senator Antonio Trillanes IV, former Ifugao representative Teddy Baguilat, human rights lawyer Chel Diokno, as well as lawyers Sonny Matula and Alex Lacson.
TRoPa’s guest candidates include Senators Joel Villanueva, Juan Miguel Zubiri and Richard Gordon, Sorsogon Gov. Francis Escudero, and former vice president Jejomar Binay, Tañada said.
The campaign period set by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for the May 9 elections starts on Feb. 8 for national candidates and March 25 for local candidates.
Makabayan endorsement
Earlier, the Makabayan coalition formally endorsed the Robredo-Pangilinan tandem, which Tañada said is appreciated by the Vice President.
Makabayan or the Makabayang Koalisyon ng Mamamayan is the bloc of 12 party-list groups in the House of Representatives.?
Activist group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan and fisherfolk group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) also welcomed Makabayan’s support for the presidential team-up.
“We support the endorsement made by the Koalisyong Makabayan for the candidacies of Leni Robredo and Kiko Pangilinan... This gives our nation hope for meaningful reforms amid the worsening crisis of the past six years,” Bayan secretary-general Renato Reyes said in a press statement.
Bayan also welcomed the inclusion of Neri Colmenares, a human rights lawyer and co-chairperson of Makabayan, in the senatorial slate of the opposition coalition 1Sambayan – which also backs the Robredo-Pangilinan tandem.
Colmenares, in a press briefing over the weekend, said he is confident that the Makabayan bloc can deliver roughly three million votes for the Robredo-Pangilinan tandem.
Reyes said the Makabayan bloc and 1Sambayan’s alliance “is an important development in unifying all democratic forces in defeating” the tandem of former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his running mate, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte.
“We look forward to seeing the different groups working together to defeat tyranny and advance democracy,” he said.?
Fernando Hicap, Pamalakaya national chairperson, also welcomed the Makabayan-1Sambayan alliance to boost Robredo’s and Pangilinan’s bid “against the imminent return of a Marcos and the extension of Duterte to Malacañang.”
“Only these two candidates (Robredo and Pangilinan) have taken up the issues raised by the people, including the fishing sector’s specific demand to uphold the national sovereignty and protect the Filipino fishers in the West Philippine Sea,” Hicap said.
Leni in Pangasinan
Yesterday, Robredo was in vote-rich Pangasinan for a series of activities.
In her speech in San Manuel town, the Vice President pushed her advocacy for honesty in governance, saying “if we are only honest in using the resources of the government, it can help a lot.”
While some look down at politicians, she said her advocacy is “to show to the people that politics is not really bad.”
“If politics is used the right way, it becomes a vehicle to help the people and this is what we have shown in the last five and a half years,” she said.
Robredo acknowledged the people of San Manuel who came to welcome her and join in the birthday celebration of former mayor Salvador Perez, the town’s longest-serving chief executive and father of incumbent Mayor Kenneth Perez.
She took the opportunity to warn them against candidates giving empty promises and urged them to scrutinize who they will vote for. “Don’t believe easily. You need to study well what a candidate had stood for in the past and up to the present,” she said in Filipino.
Robredo also led the launching of a Community Learning Hub at the Alos National High School in Alaminos City, which is one of the learning facilities set up by the Office of the Vice President and its partners.
It was established to support learners in their studies, through free access to computers, gadgets, equipment and the internet, as well as tutors.
Robredo also visited the swab cab at the Plaza de Lingayen in Poblacion, Lingayen, which provided free COVID-19 testing services from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. – Eva Visperas, Elizabeth Marcelo