President Rodrigo Duterte attends the rally of the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) at the Alonte Sports Arena in Biñan City, Laguna on Feb. 23, 2019. Joining the President on stage are former Special Assistant to the President Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go and Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III. (Photo by SIMEON CELI JR. / Presidential Photographers Division)
MANILA, Philippines — The campaign of the administration senatorial slate, though far from perfect, has turned out to be “reasonable” and “successful,” according to re-electionist Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III.
Speaking to reporters at the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino–Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban)’ mitin de avance in Pasig on Saturday, Pimentel noted that the ruling party’s senatorial ticket was able to cover a lot of ground during the three-month campaign.
“Looking back, hindi perfect yung campaign namin. Lahat naman tayo nagkakamali. Acceptable naman lahat mg aming mga pagkakamali. So this has been a reasonable and successful campaign,” he said.
[Looking back, our campaign was not perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. All our mistakes were acceptable. So this has been a reasonable and successful campaign.]
“Sinigurado namin na ang PDP-Laban senatorial ticket ay makabisita sa lahat ng rehiyon. At least yon pwede namin sabihin yon. Kung hindi man lahat ng probinsya, lahat ng rehiyon napuntahan namin as a ticket,” he added.
[We made sure that the PDP-Laban senatorial ticket would visit all the regions. At least, we can say that. We might not have visited all the provinces, but we were able to go to all the regions as a ticket.]
Besides Pimentel, the other candidates of the PDP-Laban are Maguindanao Rep. Zajid “Dong” Mangudadatu, former chief of the Bureau of Corrections Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, former special presidential aide Christopher “Bong” Go, and former presidential political adviser Francis Tolentino.
Last call
With the campaign period ending on Saturday, Pimentel urged members of the ruling party to prioritize the bets in its slate.
“Isa pang panawagan, isa pang reminder sa aming mga kapartido to practice party discipline. Dalhin talaga yung limang senatorial candidates ng PDP-Laban,” he said. “Yun ang unahin nila, kasi obligasyon nila yan bilang party members ng PDP-Laban. Tinaas nila yung kanilang kamay… na tutulungan nila ang kandidato ng admin.”
[I’m making one more call, one more reminder to our party mates to practice party discipline. Carry the five senatorial candidates of PDP-Laban. That’s should be their priority because that’s their obligation as party members of PDP-Laban. They raised their hands… to signify that they will help the candidates of the admin.]
Go out and vote
Pimentel also reminded Filipinos to vote on May 13.
“Dahil last day of the campaign na, pakiusap sa mga taong bayan, siguro pakiusap na lang — ang aking encouragement na sa Lunes lumabas at bumoto. Huwag natin sayangin yung karapatan na bumoto. Pumili ng mabuti,” he said.
[Because it’s the last day of the campaign period, our request to the people, just a request — I encourage them to go out and vote on Monday. Let’s not waste our right to vote. Choose wisely.”
PDP-Laban is currently holding its last campaign event as of this writing.
The party’s chairman, President Rodrigo Duterte, is expected to grace the event for one final push for his candidates.
(Editor: Alexander T. Magno)