SENATOR Antonio Trillanes IV merely wanted to bully his way into the vice presidency when he officially declared he was running for vice president, the camp of Vice President Jejomar Binay said on Sunday.
Binay spokesman Rico Quicho said Trillanes was entitled to his delusions, but then accused him of building a career out of attempting but failing to destroy institutions and reputations.
He also said the calamities that had been hitting the country would vanish at the end of the Aquino administration, since those disasters had been due mainly to Manuel Roxas II’s failure to use 65 percent of the disaster funds to boost the disaster preparedness of local government units.
The Philippines ended up as the country worst hit by disasters in 2012, when Roxas was Interior secretary, as reported by the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, Quicho said.
He said the same agency reported that the Philippines had the most number of casualties due to natural disasters in 2012 with 2,369 people killed.
More than 1,000 people died when Typhoon “Pablo” pummelled the Philippines, whereas China, a country with a higher population than the Philippines, came in second in the list of worse-hit countries with 771 deaths.
“Given the deaths and damage due to disasters in 2012, the DILG under Secretary Roxas would have helped a lot if they had implemented projects under the Climate Change, Disaster Risk Reduction and Management and Seal of Disaster Preparedness project,” Quicho said.
Trillanes said his candidacy for vice president was a collective decision of his Magdalo group, and that it would be an opportunity for him to once again present the Magdalo reform agenda to the people.
But Quicho disagreed.
“The senator can pontificate all he wants but he cannot fool the people,” Quicho said.
“What can we expect from a person who led an anti-government movement but left his men when cornered?” he said referring to the Oakwood mutiny and the Manila Peninsula siege staged by the Magdalo group led by Trillanes.
The 500,000-strong Magdalo group on Saturday declared its support for the presidential bid of Senator Grace Poe, who has been getting the support of various groups to boost her bid.
Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano said they conducted extensive consultations among their chapter leaders in the past few months, and they picked Poe as their prepared presidential candidate.
“She symbolizes hope and change, and we believe that she can carry out the ideals and aspirations of the group,” Alejano said.
“She and Senator Trillanes can make a good tandem in effecting change and development in the country since their advocacies and platforms are aligned.”