President Benigno Aquino III FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines — President Benigno Aquino III will be headlining the Liberal Party’s campaign advertisements, the party’s spokesman said on Tuesday.
Deputy Speaker Lorenzo Tañada III told reporters in a press conference that the President himself will be endorsing in their television advertisements the coalition’s senatorial candidates whom he feels would best help him in reforms.
He said that the candidates are the people the President is “comfortable working with.”
“It is quite clear to us that Team PNoy candidates may have had different loyalties in the past… but these are specific individuals whom the President (feels) is in the best position to protect the program and also pursue it zealously,” said Marikina City Representative Miro Quimbo.
The ads would help their candidates do better in surveys, Tañada said, adding that they viewed such surveys as guides. “(Surveys) do not reflect votes come May.”
“The January survey is just a guide for all candidates kung saan sila dapat mag-stress (where they should focus), which regions to visit,” he said.
He reiterated the LP’s strict reminder to guest candidates that they cannot appear with the competition. “It was made clear na kung nakalabas kayo sa ad namin, dapat dito lang. Kami ang kumpletong labing dalawa, ang sa kabila ay siyam (if you appeared in our ads you should stick with us. We are a team with a complete 12 candidates, the other has only nine),” he said.
Quimbo said this was something that was made clear to the guest candidates and something which they had agreed to.
The guest candidates have also been advised against tagging along the United Nationalist Alliance’s sorties.
Aquino’s endorsement was “enough” for LP candidates to get the upper hand in the senatorial race, Tañada maintained.
Tañada urged voters to scrutinize the candidates well and look at who would best assist the President in the three remaining years he had in office.