“If I do run, I’ll run for President and not for Vice President.”
Speaking at the “Kapihan sa Senado,” Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano said he would not choose running for vice president because he cannot implement his vision for the country.
Cayetano on Thursday described as a “slap on the wrist”
the recommendation of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front
to sanction its erring commanders who figured in the
firefight against the Special Action Force policemen in the
Mamasapano incident. He also revealed a “threat” to
his life because of his anti-MILF views and his opposition
to the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law. EY ACASIO
“I’m not the type of Vice President who would just keep quiet and ‘lick the ass’ of the President so that I can get his endorsement during the next elections,” said Cayetano.
The second term senator strongly believes that if one is going to run (in any elective position), he must spell the difference.
“But I’m not willing to be a President, not to win, if Mindanao will be lost or there will be war in Mindanao,” stressed Cayetano as he divulged receiving intelligence information that certain politicians “would have to be sacrificed” to pass the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL). His sources also informed him of a possible threat to his life.
Cayetano, who withdrew his authorship of the BBL, said his source told him “there are politicians, or a politician in particular and politicians in general that have to be sacrificed for the BBL to be passed.”
He said the information was contained in two separate reports —one containing the name of a specific politician.
“I really don’t want to talk about it, except that we are aware and I’m being informed, and let me just say that the authorities without saying what agency of government is doing their job, and I thank them for that despite the fact that I’m not towing the administration’s line, they informed me officially of a possible threat,” he said.
According to the senator, he was taking the threat seriously because his exposes are now targeted at an organization with lost command, apparently referring to the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF,) which he has been criticizing after the January 25 Mamasapano incident.
“We face risks in everything we do. The only difference is, before, we would make exposes against specific people, so at least we can control their people; but now, I am facing an organization that has its lost command,” he said.