MANILA, Philippines—While the new coalition led by ex-Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio isn’t clear yet which candidate to support in the 2022 national elections, it was already definite about who won’t qualify and among them were the President’s daughter, Sara, and boxing icon Manny Pacquiao.
“We are a coalition of democratic forces, we reject those who are identified w/authoritarianism,” Carpio said at the launch of the coalition 1Sambayanan.
“We reject those who are responsible for EJK or who abet EJK,” Carpio said.
Carpio said Sara, being the daughter of the President, is not qualified.
“Duterte is the exponent of authoritarianism,” said the former Supreme Court justice.
“He has several times said that he will trash the Constitution. We do not think that the daughter of the President will qualify under our coalition,” he said.
When asked if Pacquiao would be considered, Carpio said the same thing.
“He is identified also with President Duterte,” he said.
“He has supported the war on drugs and he has stated that in the Senate. He is also for death penalty although he quotes the Bible. So, It will be difficult for us to consider him,” Carpio said.
Carpio said that the group had already met with some potential candidates, which included Vice President Leni Robredo, Manila Mayor Isko Moreno, Sen. Nancy Binay, Sen. Grace Poe, and former Sen. Antonio Trillanes.
He said the process of selecting which candidate to support is ongoing and there is no final slate yet.
“We are prepared to accept suggestions from everyone,” said Carpio.
“What is important is we agreed on the process that at the end of the day we will only choose one slate,” he added.
Carpio said Filipinos need “a better alternative” to the current administration.
“This government is really incompetent,” Carpio said in what could be his harshest criticism of the Duterte administration so far.
“They’ve been tested and everybody is saying they failed,” said Carpio. “So we have to offer a better alternative to our people because we don’t want the same thing to happen again, to continue in the next six years,” he said.
TSB