MANILA, Philippines — “Let’s us unite on the ground and then we will explain that Marcos is wrong,” presidential candidate Leodegario “Ka Leody” de Guzman urged his fellow contenders on Wednesday.
He was referring to former Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his claims about his performance as a public official.
At the same time, he called “foul” the call of Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso’ for Vice President Leni Robredo to withdraw from the race.
“I think it’s foul to announce in public that you want her to resign,” De Guzman told reporters in Filipino. “If he wanted her to withdraw, he should have just sent her a letter and talked to her in secret.”
“But it’s foul. I think it’s not good. If he wants to win and not Marcos he should just campaign. Let’s unite on the ground and help each other campaign against Marcos. And let the votes go to whichever candidate,” he added.
Shifting his focus on Marcos, the labor leader said: “If in Ilocos Norte, which is a small province, he ruled twice, as vice governor and then governor, and after his terms the poverty incidence there was still so big, it means he was not able to make such a small province develop. And now he’s dreaming of leading a whole country to progress?”
“And let’s also explain, let’s help each other in explaining that the Marcos years were not the golden years,” he added.
Those years, he went on, were “a time of darkness and a time of martial law, repression.”
“[It was] a time when more than 3,000 of our countrymen were killed, a time of unjustified imprisonment, a time of stealing, a time when we were deep in debt — from 500 million [pesos] when he took office until it became 20 billion,” De Guzman said.
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