Claims his failure to shell out P800 million triggered Reporma to back Leni
Presidential candidate Senator Panfilo Lacson believes his failure to give P800 million to Partido Reporma triggered the shift of the party’s Davao del Norte group led by dismissed House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez to shift support to Vice President Leni Robredo.
Lacson said Alvarez’s chief of staff, whom he did not name, asked him for P800 million.
“His chief of staff was asking for P800 million in additional funding which I honestly told him I cannot produce,” Lacson said.
Alvarez denied Lacson’s account.
“That’s not true. I never asked for funding requirements from him for our local candidates,” Alvarez told GMA News Online. “We can very well fund our own candidates.”
The Robredo camp said they did not have to pay anyone P800 million to gain their support.
“Our campaign thrives on initiative and volunteerism, and we certainly do not have P800 million pesos to give away to anyone,” Robredo’s spokesman Ibarra Gutierrez said.
“The support for Vice President Leni’s presidential bid is anchored on the hope that she can reform the government and bring a better future for all Filipinos,” he added.
After the party abandoned Lacson six weeks before Election Day, the senator said it was time to call a spade a spade.
“It was actually more about the issue of campaign expenses for their local candidates,” he said.
The campaign for all local candidates officially started March 25.
Lacson said he did not buy claims that Alvarez’s group decided to endorse another presidential candidate because of his low standing in pre-election surveys.
After quitting his post as part chairman on Thursday, Lacson declared he is now running as an independent candidate.
The former Partido Reporma standard bearer said he harbors no ill feelings over what happened.
Lacson’s spokesman, Ashley Acedillo, who also resigned as party spokesman, said the senator had seen signs that the Alvarez group would withdraw support from him.
“He saw it already… But he kept it to himself, as he said, because he wanted to hear first, of course, from Speaker Bebot and those running or those in Reporma in Davao del Norte,” he said, referring to Alvarez.
Alvarez said he believed in Lacson’s leadership qualities but there were two frontrunners right now—former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos and Vice President Leni Robredo, and he preferred to support the latter.
Former executive secretary Renato de Villa, chairman emeritus and founder of Partido Reporma, said he would continue to support Lacson, but said he could do nothing about the party’s action.
“I will stick with Ping and continue to endorse and support him,” he said, referring to Lacson. “Like a true soldier in combat, I hope that those fighting for him in this political battle will continue the fight and not leave him behind.”
De Villa said he was surprised by Thursday’s events, and that many members were asking what happened.
He said Lacson as a man of honor and courage, very clearly explained in a press statement why he had to resign as chairman of the party.
Acedillo said Lacson’s supporters and campaign volunteers were more enthusiastic and would work harder now that he is an independent.
“Because of that, we basically don’t have anything to pick or pieces to pick up because our parallel ground campaign teams are in place,” Acedillo said.
“Our Lacson-Sotto Support Group is wide. In fact, [our supporters] in more than 40,000 barangays, we were able to group them into what we call super barangays or clusters. These clusters have supervisors and they have their own campaign teams that are going around to bring the messages of transformation and the continuing fight against corruption of our candidate Ping Lacson,” he added.
