Santiago: Anyone qualified can join my senatorial slate, except criminals

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago said any qualified candidate “as long as he’s not a criminal” is welcomed to join her senatorial ticket in 2016.

So far, Santiago said there are now four or five senatorial candidates who are talking with her but she refused to name them, saying they might also be talking to other parties.

“Sinasabi ko sa lahat ng mga kandidato para sa senador na nagtatanong sa akin kung anong kailangan para makasanib sila sa partido kong People’s Reform Party (PRP), sinasabi ko na lang na ako, open na tanggapin basta qualified ang tao at wala syang ginawa na masama sa Penal Code . In other words as long as he’s not a criminal, then i just have to review the resume…” she told reporters in a phone-patch interview on Tuesday.

(I tell the senatorial bets asking me about the requirements to join my party, the People’s Reform Party. I just tell them na I’m open to accept anyone qualified and who has not done anything against the Penal Code. In other words, as long as he’s not a criminal, then I just have to review the resume.)

But this early, the senator warned that those who would like to join her People’s Reform Party (PRP) should not expect financial assistance from the group, which she organized when she first ran in 1992 . She also ran but lost in the 1998 presidential race.

“Kinakausap ko muna sila isa-isa para walang sama ng loob tungkol sa pera,” she said, referring to the senatorial bets who were discussing a possible alliance with her next year.

(I talk to them one by one to avoid any conflict about money)

“Anyway, iniisa- isa ko silang kinakausap personal na wala silang maasahan na tulong na pera kundi kanya kanya kami dahil wala akong partido din kung hindi yung PRP, which is self organized and which spends contributors’ money…kaya wala kaming constant source of funding. Yun ang pinakamahirap na problema sa pulitika e, yung pera, sino ang gagastos,” she said.

(I personally talk to them one by one and told them that they can’t expect financial assistance because I don’t have any other party except the PRP, which is self-organized and which spends contributors’ money…so we don’t have constant source of funding. That is the most difficult problem in politics, money, and who will spend.)

For lack of resources, Santiago said she and her running mate, Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr., might have to go around the country on their own but there are times that she said they would have to campaign together.

But more than the usual provincial sorties, the senator saw the upcoming elections being dominated by the internet.

“The Internet techies or the netizens of the Internet will determine the next president,” she said.

Asked if the support that she’s been getting in social media would be her strength, Santiago said: “Yes, it seems to me that netizens like the way I think or speak for purposes of social media.” TVJ

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