UNA candidate sees red over Aquino’s yellow rap

LEGAZPI CITY—President Aquino should not begrudge other parties from sporting yellow as their campaign color and should not lose his head over such trivialities, an opposition senatorial candidate said here on Monday.

Zambales Rep. Milagros “Mitos” Magsaysay, a senatorial candidate of the opposition United Nationalist Alliance (UNA), said the colors chosen by local parties should not concern the President, as there are far more important matters that demand his attention.

Magsaysay was reacting to reports that the President chided the UNA for having local candidates in General Santos City who were using yellow as their campaign color.

Yellow is the official color of the President’s Liberal Party. It is the signature color of Aquino’s mother, the late President Corazon Aquino, who battled dictator Ferdinand Marcos in a snap presidential election in 1986 wearing yellow dresses to signify the Filipinos’ struggle for freedom.

“I think the President should stop looking at trivialities, as far as the election is concerned. What he should focus on is how to address the problems of the country, not the uniforms of local candidates,” Magsaysay told reporters here.

For instance, criticizing local candidates for wearing yellow despite not being affiliated with Team PNoy will not solve the power shortage in General Santos City, she said.

Magsaysay also said that in the first place, no group owns any color.

“Does Team PNoy have a patent for the color yellow? Have they bought the ‘rights’ to that color?” she said.

In a separate statement, UNA campaign manager Toby Tiangco said the alliance was not trying to mislead the voters.

The UNA’s national campaign color is orange, he said, but its local allies are free to choose any color for their campaign.

Tiangco pointed out that some of the local allies of Team PNoy use colors other than yellow.