Legarda officially joins LP senatorial slate

Senator Loren Legarda INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – Senator Loren Legarda, citing a “need for principled cooperation,” has officially joined the senatorial slate of the Liberal Party’s (LP’s) coalition for the 2013 midterm elections.

“I am accepting the personal invitation of [President Benigno Aquino III] to be part of the LP coalition as the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) nominee in the slate because of the need for principled cooperation among leaders,” Legarda said in a statement released after LP officially announced their senate lineup Monday.

Legarda had previously joined the United Nationalist Alliance’s (UNA) senatorial lineup as a guest candidate.

She said however that she continues to stand for her advocacies despite issues surrounding her decision to run in both the administration’s slate and the UNA slate.

“I share the values of pro-inclusive growth, pro-people, pro-poor, pro-environment, pro-good governance, pro-women, and pro-resilient development principles in our governance. I want to see genuine development aspirations to be felt by the people, a development agenda that transcends political boundaries,” Legarda said.

“The present administration, in the next three years, has the capacity to achieve the development gains that the people deserve. Every working day of the remaining years of the Aquino administration counts and I trust that this cooperation will allow us to advance our shared advocacies with a sense of urgency,” she added.

Legarda is joined by her fellow senators Alan Cayetano, Antonio Trillanes IV, Aquilino Pimentel III, and Francis Escudero in the LP slate.

The rest of the candidates in the LP slate are Benigno “Bam” Aquino IV, former senators Ramon Magsaysay Jr. and Jamby Madrigal, former representatives Cynthia Villar and Risa Hontiveros, MTRCB Chairman Grace Poe-Llamanzares, and Aurora representative Juan Edgardo Angara.

“At the end of the day, I will be judged based on my track record, not so much on the political affiliation especially in a multiparty system like ours. It’s not about me – politicians or politics,” Legarda said.