Believing that Vice President Leni Robredo is a much better presidential candidate in the upcoming May 2022 elections, former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay quit the Aksyon Demokratiko of Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso.
“I respect the decision of my party to choose Mayor Isko Moreno as candidate for president, but also believe VP Leni is a much better candidate in this most crucial of elections,” said Hilbay in a statement shared on his social media accounts.
Hilbay clarified he was leaving Aksyon Demokratiko “not to join another party but out of ethical considerations.”
He said he quit Domagoso’s political party since he is endorsing the presidential bid of Robredo in the 2022 polls.
“Because I intend, as an ordinary citizen, to publicly support her campaign, I must resign from the only political party I have ever joined,” he said.
Robredo is running as an independent candidate although she remains the national chairman of the Liberal Party.
The former solicitor general said Robredo would be “a president who will confront problems not with publicity stunts to manipulate Filipinos but with honest-to-goodness attempts at solutions.”
“We do not need more of the same, or even less of the same,” he said.
He stressed the country cannot afford another narcissistic, gaslighting troll for a president.
“A candidate who wakes up only during campaigns is no leader, and we can’t have another absentee president,” he said.
In 2019, Hilbay ran for senator under the banner of Aksyon Demokratiko while being part of the opposition coalition at the time, a slate that Robredo supported and Domagoso recently criticized.
Earlier, the Manila mayor called Robredo a “fake leader with a fake color” after she opted to run as an independent candidate.
Last week, 10 officials of the group Bagong Pnoy, led by its founder and president Juvy Catajoy, personally went to Domago’s City Hall office to pledge their group’s support for his presidential bid.
A number of Liberal Party stalwarts also bolted their party to join Aksyon Demokratiko and threw their support behind Domagoso, including Caloocan City Rep. Edgar Erice, former LP Quezon City chairman Jopet Sison and Mindanao civic leader Samira Gutoc.
Both Sison and Gutoc are now running for senator under the Aksyon Demokratiko ticket.
