The camp of Senators Grace Poe and Francis “Chiz” Escudero is urging other candidates in the May 2016 elections “not to indulge in ugly personal attacks” but instead focus on track record and platform of government.
Valenzuela Mayor Rex Gatchalian, spokesperson of the Poe-Escudero team, warned Monday that mudslinging and finger-pointing would only distract the people from the real issues at hand.
“All that will be a great disservice to the electorate who deserves to be informed of the candidates’ plans on improving the people’s lot and solving the country’s woes,” Gatchalian said in a statement.
“It is our duty to educate the voters and help them analyze the track record and performance of each candidate,” he further said.
Gatchalian reiterated the call to “keep the campaign on a professional level” after Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte revealed what he claimed as a demolition job against him allegedly perpetrated by the camp of former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, the Liberal Party’s standard-bearer in 2016.
Duterte suspects that Roxas’ camp was behind the rumor that he was suffering from throat cancer, which the latter immediately denied.
READ: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/722240/duterte-tells-roxas-stand-on-track-record-stop-smearing-rivals
READ: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/732173/roxas-denies-spreading-duterte-rumor
“It is lamentable how a valuable civil servant like Mayor Duterte should fall prey to such attacks. We just cannot stand and watch while all that talent and goodwill go to waste just because of another candidate’s ambition,” Gatchalian said.
“That was too personal. Election squabbling among candidates, who are supposed to be professionals and of high-morale standing, shouldn’t be allowed to succumb to ugly tactics just to win,” he added.
Asked if he was referring to Roxas in his statements, the spokesman said: “We are not one to point fingers. We are simply stating a general observation.”
Gatchalian said it was also for this reason that the Poe-Escudero tandem is calling for the immediate holding of the Commission on Elections-sponsored debates so that the voters would hear and see for themselves the platform of government of each candidate.
“While integrity and honesty are pillars of public service, decency and propriety in achieving our goals should also be observed in an electoral process like this,” said the spokesman.