MANILA, Philippines – Senate Pro Tempore Ralph Recto on Thursday urged 2016 aspirants to observe “political ceasefire” and “mute” the Charter change (Cha-Cha) overtures.
“Early fixation on an election that is still 634 days away puts politics in the front-burner, dissipates our energy, distracts our attention, and marginalizes the real concerns of the people,’ Recto, an administration ally, said in a statement.
How to solve problems that burden the people, he said, must dominate the national conversation and “not the chatter of the political class on who shall succeed the president.”
“We must restore our bearings. The people don’t want us to talk loudly about succession. What they want is for us to work hard so that government programs meant for their benefit succeed,” he said.
Recto said the people are not concerned as to who would get the job in Malacañang but on how to give work to the 12 million who have been unemployed for years.
“Yan ang dapat i-push. Hindi ang kandidatura ng iilan,” he said.
“If we want the nation to march to the same beat, our leaders must tone down the volume on topics about 2016 and in the meantime mute the Cha-cha music on changing political provisions of the Constitution,” said the senator.
This early, he said, unofficial presidential primaries have not done anything good to Filipinos “except perhaps to create the spectacle of them throwing mud at each other, a show which can entertain the people but does not improve their lot.”
“Baka siguro mas mabuti cease-and-desist muna sa lahat ng maagang kampanya,” he said.
“Ang kailangan siguro is a ceasefire of the political kind. There is a time for everything and a season for every activity. This is not the time for a scorched-earth political warfare in which the rules in combat are shelved aside,” Recto added.