LP vows to take high ground with ‘positive campaign’

A Party (LP) is mounting a “positive campaign” that will rise above foul personal attacks in pushing the presidential candidacy of Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, Western Samar Rep. Mel Senen Sarmiento said on Wednesday.

Sarmiento, the party’s secretary general, said the campaign would “refrain from using black propaganda, dirty tricks and political mudslinging.”

“The LP will use only positive propaganda in our campaign for the 2016 elections. Our message will be the track record of our candidates and our platform of government,” Sarmiento said in a statement.

“It’s just sad that some people are using name-calling and foul personal attacks to bring down their perceived political rivals. We at the LP are not only committed to reform the old and corrupt system of governance but we are also working hard to also change our prevailing political culture,” he said.

“Mar Roxas and the entire LP team will campaign based on what we have done and what we intend to do,” Sarmiento said.

He said the ruling party had nothing to do with the filing of a disqualification case against Sen. Grace Poe, the front-runner in the presidential preference surveys.

Classic false tactic

Sarmiento said the case filed by Rizalito David, a defeated senatorial candidate of the Kapatiran political party, was a “false flag tactic to provoke hostility between the LP and the camp of Senator Poe.”

“It was obvious that the real culprits are trying to pin the blame on LP political affairs chair and Caloocan City Rep. Edgar Erice because after the filing, a text blast quickly followed naming him as the one who gave the filing fee to Mr. David,” he said.

“That’s a classic false flag tactic, which was used by the Germans to justify their invasion of Poland,” Sarmiento said.

Sarmiento said the Roxas campaign would focus on the things that he had accomplished both as a public servant and as President Aquino’s most trusted “wingman” in running the government.

But he added that Roxas’ presidential bid “should not get in the way of the government’s anticorruption campaign despite efforts by some political personalities to draw a connection between the 2016 elections and their legal problems due to alleged involvement in various cases of graft and corruption.”

“The wheels of justice cannot stop grinding just because it’s election next year,” he said.

Binay cases

Sarmiento said the Office of the Ombudsman was designed to be insulated from partisan politics.

“Therefore, there is no basis to the claim that all these cases of corruption that are being filed in the Sandiganbayan by the Ombudsman is politically motivated,” he said.

He noted that Vice President Jejomar Binay was still part of the Aquino administration when the Senate started its investigation of the corruption allegations surrounding him when he was mayor of Makati City.

“It is important to note that he used to sing praises to the Aquino administration and has only started bashing the President when it became clear to him that P-Noy would not interfere with the investigations on his alleged involvement in various cases of graft and corruption,” Sarmiento said.

“It is clear that these investigations and legal actions are not black propaganda. This is an exercise of the government’s mandate to stop corruption in all levels and without fear or favor,” he said.