Presidential candidate Sen. Panfilo Lacson said of the two kinds of politics now emerging, he said the Philippines badly needs one that is anchored on service, not one based on self-interest.
He stressed this Wednesday as Filipinos continue to reel from a pandemic and the effects of Typhoon Odette.
“During a pandemic and after a calamity, two kinds of politics emerge—the politics of service helps the victims; the politics of interest helps the politicians,” he said.
He commended the government troops who continue to conduct, without fanfare, relief missions for victims of Odette, which devastated several areas in the country late last year.
Earlier, he thanked the Armed Forces of the Philippines and Philippine Coast Guard for quietly helping deliver relief assistance to areas hit by Odette.
“When the cameras and photo ops stop and the victims are in danger of being forgotten, that’s when the real heroes emerge,” he noted.
In contrast, he reiterated there is never a time for politics of interest, including “calamity politics” where some personalities use disasters for publicity.
Throughout his public life, Lacson has earned a reputation for quietly helping victims of calamities as well as individuals in need.
As a law enforcer, Lacson maintained a “No-Take” policy from gambling lords as well as suppliers and contractors transacting business with the Philippine National Police who offered him hush and grease money.
He also consistently declined reward money from grateful relatives of kidnap victims he rescued without making a big deal out of it, always maintaining that he was only performing his law enforcement duty.
As Senator, he continued his “No-Take” policy by rejecting not just his pork barrel allocations but also lobby money from some sectors in exchange for “favorable” legislation.
Meanwhile, he said the worst kind of thief is the one who steals out of greed, not out of need.
While he clarified that all kinds of thieves should be punished, the former national police chief said in the short video there’s a difference between the two thieves.
He said those who steal out of need can be helped to reform their lives and can be given forgiveness. But those who steal not because they are in need but out of greed, those are the ones that are hard to forgive.
To stress his point, Lacson flashed through a video the headlines related to corruption in government, which Lacson has doggedly acted on since becoming a senator in 2001 and even when he was a soldier and policeman coming up the ranks, culminating in his becoming Philippine National Police chief in 1999.
Through the video, the three-term senator warned thieves and the corrupt to end their wicked ways as they had no place in a law-abiding, orderly society.
“We will get rid of thieves!]” messages on the video warned.
In his second presidential campaign, Lacson is running with Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III on a platform of proactive governance and the eradication of corruption in the government service for a better future for all Filipinos.