A campaign organizer has offered presidential candidate Panfilo “Ping” Lacson people for hire—at P500 per person—to attend his campaign rallies for the May 9 elections, the veteran senator disclosed Wednesday.
Lacson made the statement during a press conference with Zamboanga City Mayor Maria Isabelle “Beng “Climaco-Salazar, vice presidential candidate and Senate President Vicente Sotto III, and senatorial candidates Manny Piñol and Minguita Padilla.
“The other day, this is funny because one of our supporters in Luzon, Southern Tagalog Region, was approached by an organizer. I would just like to share this with you because this is somehow misleading. He was asked if ‘Senator Lacson and Senator Sotto would like to conduct many rallies. We can provide attendees for P500 per person, no matter how many,’” he said.
According to the lawmaker, these “hakot” crowds would be coming from Rizal, Payatas, Caloocan, and Mandaluyong.
“It is up to us to determine the volume of the crowd. It is like a human resources department. Actually, the net take home of each participant is something like P200. Maybe that is the net because there is additional P100 or P150 for transportation and food,” Lacson said.
“I was surprised actually. It seems those people attending the rally of other candidates are the same. It was being offered to us,” he added.
Now running as an independent candidate, Lacson said his organizer did not accept the offer, as his and Sotto’s campaign focuses on town hall meetings.
“That’s the reality on the ground and we know that, most of the candidates know that and we can’t blame the people because coming from the pandemic, life is really hard,” the former chairman of Partido Reporma said.
Meanwhile, judicious spending and equitable distribution of public funds will produce a wealth of economic opportunities for the urban poor, Lacson said.
He told Zamboanga City residents on Wednesday about his plans to alleviate widespread poverty in the country.
The three-term senator offered a refined and streamlined “Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program” (4Ps) as one of his long-term goals to bring underprivileged families and communities above the poverty line.
Lacson, however, clarified that he was not “sour-graping” and was just stating the realities on the ground.
On the other hand, Lacson said his campaign would focus on convincing voters who consider him as their second choice to actually vote for him.
Citing a recent survey, Lacson said he got a 2% rating from the “hard supporters” while he got 40% from the “soft supporters” or those who would vote for him but are considering his winnability.
“Imagine that 40%. I have a good reason to suspect, to think or assume that most of the 40%, these are the people who said they wanted to vote for me because he is the most qualified but the votes for him might be wasted,” he said.
“So, I would like to overcome that notion because if you really think that the candidate is qualified, just vote for him and don’t think that your vote will be wasted. Come what may, at least you exercised your right to choose the right leader based on your conscience,” the senator added.
Lacson compared these soft votes to a “magma waiting to erupt.”
“We need to penetrate and burst the bubble so we can see the good percentage of voters who are thinking. Because if they think that their votes will be wasted, that is a disservice to yourself and the country,” the former national police chief pointed out.
“Hopefully, in the next 40 days or so, we will be able to address that, and maybe we will be given a chance to serve (as President),” he added.