MANILA, Philippines — For Otso Diretso campaign manager and Liberal Party (LP) President Senator Francis ”Kiko” Pangilinan, the May 13 midterm elections is a “fight for truth and for right.”
The opposition stalwart issued the remark as he believed that whatever the result of this election “we have already won.”
“The fight for truth and for right has reached today, the midterm elections,” Pangilinan said Monday, Election Day.
According to him, the opposition and Filipino people have been in battle to preserve democracy in the country since 2016. He cited, among others, the killings under the name of the Duterte administration’s war on drugs, burial of late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos in the Libingan ng mga Bayani, threats to Vice President Leni Robredo, and the arrest and detention of Senator Leila de Lima over drug complaints.
“Ang dami no? May mga panalo tayo dyan, may mga medyo panalo, may mga talo,” he noted. “Lahat ‘yan, laban ng bayan, may partisipasyon ng taumbayan. All are attacks on our democracy and freedoms, on the poorest and the most powerless, and those who defend them.”
“Today is Election Day and regardless of the outcome, we have already won,” he added.
Pangilinan then lauded the eight Otso Diretso candidates for offering themselves as “gladiators” in this year’s polls as well as Catholic bishops and lay leaders who supported LP. He also extolled their volunteers, including artists, who helped the opposition group in the campaign.
READ: Otso Diretso: Whatever the results, we’ve already won
“We have flexed our democratic muscles and we know our strength,” Pangilinan said. “And all these are what we will take in the next battles, because there will be more. But then, there will be more of us amongst our ranks as well.” (Editor: Katherine G. Adraneda)