Vice President Leni Robredo on Wednesday urged the people to support the eight senatorial candidates of the opposition coalition, saying next year’s electoral exercise will be a chance to correct the mistakes of the 2016 elections.
“What did the candidates promise in 2016? Were those promises kept?” Robredo said in Filipino. “Why did we vote for them?”
If mistakes were made in 2016, she said, it was time to right the wrongs.
“Let us not be carried away by sweet words and so many promises,” she said. “Instead, let’s look at who we will vote for and what their record is.”
The Oposisyon Koalisyon senatorial slate for 2019 is composed of Senator Paolo Benigno S. Aquino IV; former Senator and Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II; election lawyer Romulo Macalintal; Magdalo Party-list Rep. Gary Alejano; Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) chairman Jose Manuel Diokno; former Bangsamoro Transition Commission member Samira Gutoc; former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay; and former House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Lorenzo Tañada III.
The launch of the Oposisyon Koalisyon was held in Marikina City, which Rep. Romero Federico Quimbo said is a city that welcomes the opposition.
The coalition includes the Liberal Party, Aksyon Demokratiko founded by the late Senator Raul Roco, party-list groups Magdalo and Akbayan, and other civil society groups.
Diokno said strengthening the justice system should be a component of the national agenda.
“Justice is about accountability and the last thing politicians want is to be held accountable. Justice is about empowering the poor and the last thing politicians want is an enlightened electorate,” he said.
Gutoc, who was among the thousands displaced in the Marawi fighting, said that while she is a neophyte in politics, she is a veteran in public service.
Macalintal vowed to fight for the rights of the senior citizens, whom he said are often neglected in society.
In a video message, Roxas, who was out of the country, said through a video message that his Senate run is not a round two of the 2016 elections, but for the county’s better future.
Tañada vowed to fight for the rights and for better lives of the country’s farmers and workers, just as he did as a member of the House of Representatives.
Earlier, Senator Francis Pangilinan, campaign manager of the coalition, said members share a “common set of facts and values” and aim “to reclaim wider democratic spaces” to push our their common agenda of a progressive and prosperous Philippines through the 2019 elections.
In her address, Robredo said the solutions to the country’s problems lie in the hands of the people, in their choice of leaders who should know how to listen.
“Our responsibility as leaders is to listen to them,” she said.
