MANILA, Philippines — Presidential candidate, Senator Panfilo Lacson on Wednesday bared an offer made by an organizer through one of their supporters in Southern Tagalog region to secure campaign rally participants for just P500 per head.
Lacson made the remark during a press conference in Zamboanga City on with Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, his running mate.
“This is funny, because one of our supporters in Luzon, Southern Tagalog region, was approached by an organizer—I would like to share this with you—sabi sa kanya, ‘Baka gusto ni Sen. Lacson at Sen. Sotto (Senate President Vicente Sotto III) na magkaroon ng maraming rally, meron kaming mga tao, P500 per person, maski ilan,’ sabing ganon,” Lacson told reporters.
(This is funny, because one of our supporters in Luzon, Southern Tagalog region, was approached by an organizer—I would like to share this with you—the organizer told him ‘Maybe Sen. Lacson and Sen. Sotto would like to have rallies, we have people, P500 per person,’ The organizer said.)
“In-identfy yung panggagalingan: Rizal, Payatas, Caloocan, Mandaluyong, bahala na kami,” he added.
(The organizer identified where these people would come from: Rizal, Payatas, Caloocan, Mandaluyong, we can choose.)
“Yun pa lang naga-attend ng rally ng iba’t ibang partido, sila-sila pala yun and it was being offered to us,” he further said.
(It turns out those attending the rallies of other parties, it’s just these participants and it was being offered to us.)
Lacson said the supporter turned down the organizer’s offer, saying the tandem prefers conducting town hall meetings with multi-sectoral groups instead of a campaign rally.
“Di kami masyado interesado sa rally [We’re not really interested in rallies]. So it ended there. That’s the reality on the ground and we know that most of the candidates know that,” the presidential candidate said.
“We can’t blame the people coming from pandemic talagang ang hirap ng buhay [life is really hard nowadays],” he added.