Lacson-Sotto team sees cracks in the ‘Solid North’

NO LONGER SOLID | Presidential candidate Sen. Panfilo Lacson and his running mate Senate President Vicente Sotto lll barnstorm Ilocandia. (Photo by NIÑO JESUS ORBETA / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

MANILA, Philippines — The confidence of the Partido Reporma tandem of standard- bearer Sen. Panfilo Lacson and Senate President Vicente Sotto III was buoyed by the very warm reception they got from Ilocano-speaking towns in Baguio City, Pangasinan, and Nueva Ecija, which, they said, was an indication that the “North” was not that “solid” after all.

Lacson said they saw during the two-day visit that voters were generally receptive to their platforms and advocacies, supposedly disproving the concept that a “Solid North” will support their fellow Ilocano-speaking bets, like former Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

“As you may be aware, isn’t it that in the Ilocos Region, the people mostly vote for people from their own region? But as we saw earlier, we got a good response because our discussion of their problems was issue-based,” he told reporters in Urdaneta City in Pangasinan on Sunday.

Warmly received

The Partido Reporma team barnstormed the provinces of Pangasinan and Nueva Ecija on Sunday, after a two-day visit to Baguio City for meetings and the general assembly of the Philippine Military Academy Alumni Association.

The Lacson-Sotto tandem said they were delighted after they were received warmly by businessmen, farmers and tricycle drivers as they expounded on their platform of government for the next six years should they get the mandate to be the country’s next leaders.

In Urdaneta City, the team met with about 400 members of a tricycle drivers and operators’ association (Toda) in Barangay San Vicente, who voiced their concerns before two of the country’s incumbent senators.

The Pangasinan experience showed that Filipinos’ minds weren’t closed to voting for the most qualified candidates, even in areas considered as bastions of certain political personalities, for as long as discussions are issue-based, Lacson said.

“The Toda members wanted to test me because I had said earlier that if someone was Ilocano-speaking, they already had leanings for certain candidates. I also wanted to test their reaction [toward us],” he said.

Subsidies

The Lacson-Sotto duo has proposed that the government resume its subsidies to all public utility vehicle drivers as they deal with lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially with the series of surges in oil prices supposedly caused by the political instability in oil-producing countries.

He said the problem of providing subsidies for sectors crippled by economic downturns could have been easily solved by the availability of funds that were otherwise lost to corruption.

“That’s why, if the P700 billion wasn’t being stolen from the government every year to go into someone else’s pockets, we could easily afford a fuel subsidy,” Lacson said.