Isko’s Waray supporters renew call for unification talks

MANILA, Philippines — A Waray volunteer group for Manila Mayor Isko Moreno renewed the call for unification talks to defeat survey frontrunner former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and prevent the return of the late dictator’s family in Malacañang.

Warays for Isko provincial coordinator Babam Cabueños, however, clarified to The STAR yesterday that they are not calling for Moreno to withdraw and give way to Vice President Leni Robredo.

While their group is still for Moreno, they are bothered by Moreno’s “steady” survey ratings at a far third place behind Robredo and Marcos, Cabueños said.

“We are not asking Isko to withdraw from the race. What we want is a call for unity among opposition candidates, to sit together and come up with a unifying candidate… The opposition is fragmented. It could be stronger if it were united and their efforts not divided,” he said during a press conference in Tacloban City Friday.

“At this point in time, it’s not yet too late for Mayor Isko and other contenders to swallow their pride to reach out to other candidates’ teams to come together and rally with the most formidable opposition candidate, if only for the sole purpose of preventing the return of the darkest moment in our history, and that is martial law during the Marcos regime,” he added.

Cabueños noted that they have decided to make the call as a “patriotic duty to save the country from potential societal regression if another Marcos is left to win the presidency.

The volunteer group renewed the unity call after a Visayas chapter of another Moreno volunteer group IM Pilipinas shifted support to Robredo.

Cabueños, who is running for town councilor under Moreno’s Aksyon Demokratiko party, said there are 6,000 volunteers in their group in Western Samar.

He hopes that Moreno would improve his dismal survey ratings so that the country could have a president with Samar roots. Moreno’s mother Rosario hails from Allen town in Northern Samar.

Moreno’s camp downplayed the latest Pulse Asia survey conducted March 17-21 that showed Moreno in third place with eight percent, far behind Robredo’s nine-point increase to 24 percent and Marcos’ four-point dip to 56 percent.