Senators Panfilo Lacson and Vicente Sotto III officially launch their tandem for 2022 national polls.
MANILA, Philippines — The tandem of Senator Panfilo Lacson and Senate President Vicente Sotto III officially launched their bid for the 2022 national elections, which was aired on two major television channels simultaneously.
Lacson is running for President while Sotto will be his running mate, and merging two of the country’s leading political parties — Lacson’s Partido para sa Demokratikong Reporma, and Sotto’s Nationalist People’s Coalition.
During a recorded program streamed on Wednesday morning, Lacson and Sotto presented themselves as a viable option to ensure that the country would arise from difficulties brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Lacson, the country should not be left to wrong analyses — taking a shot at President Rodrigo Duterte who admitted that it is harder to manage the country, rather than being Davao City mayor.
“In his sixth and final State of the Nation Address, President Rodrigo Duterte admitted that he was wrong to think that leading the country is as simple and easy as leading Davao City. Walang debate sa katotohanan, hindi natin dapat payagan ang maling akala para sa kinabukasan ng ating bansa,” Lacson said.
Lacson also mentioned several problems amid the COVID-19 pandemic, stressing that they would be releasing a roadmap that would address these concerns — which they would release publicly.
“Unti-unti nawawala ang ilang bahagi ng ating teritoryo sa West Philippine Sea. Ilan lamang ito sa malalaking problemang nagdudulot ng kawalan ng pag-asa ng mga Pilipino. Hindi biro-biro ang pagsubok na haharapin ng susunod na administrasyon,” he claimed.
As we speak, we are in the process of drawing up a roadmap or a masterplan that would serve as a platform of government that we intend to present to our people. After all, sa takdang panahon, kayo ang magdedesisyon kung karapat-dapat ba kaming pagkatiwalaan na mamuno sa ating bayan,” he added.
Meanwhile, Sotto said that the country’s biggest problem, aside from all the ongoing woes about the health crisis, was the Filipinos losing hope and not knowing who they can trust.
“Humaharap po tayo sa matitinding suliranin, bagsak ang ekonomiya, pagkalat at pagtaas ng kaso ng mga COVID-19 sa buong bansa, laganap na korapsyon, paghihirap ng mga Pilipino. At gaya ng dati, ang mga ordinaryong tao, ang mga salat sa karangyaan, ang mga dukha, ang mga mahihirap, ang nakakaranas ng matinding pagdudusa,” Sotto said.
“Ngunit ang mas malubhang problema ay ang kawalan ng pag-asa, naku ‘wag na ‘wag ‘yan ang mawawala,” he added. “Subalit, higit pa sa aking mga nabanggit, naririto kami dahil kami ay naniniwala na sa ating pagtutulungan tayo ay magtatagumpay, pinapangako namin na hindi kami titigil sa laban na ito hangga’t di nanunumbalik ang kaayusan ng ating bansa.”
Lacson and Sotto are the first tandem to formally announce their presidential and vice-presidential bids for 2022, with other rumored candidates like Vice President Leni Robredo, Manila Mayor Isko Moreno, Senator Manny Pacquiao, and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio still in the thick of deciding.
Lacson was one of the personalities whom Robredo talked to in the hopes of building an alliance for the opposition, to challenge the anointed candidate of the administration.
However, the talks failed after Robredo allegedly rejected Lacson’s suggestion for all of them to run for public office and then rescinding the candidacy in favor of the candidate with the highest possibility of winning.