Grace Poe: Stop mudslinging, debate platforms instead

Candidates should turn over a new leaf this new year by steering clear of petty politics and making the 2016 campaign a battle of platforms on how to improve government, said Sen. Grace Poe, who issued the call to fellow aspirants for the presidency.

Voters will choose the country’s next set of leaders in May and the official campaign period for national posts will begin next month.

“We’re all coming into 2016 with a clean slate. We can use this chance to elevate the level of discourse in the campaign. I think everyone will agree that Filipinos deserve no less from us,” Poe said in a statement.

Poe also recalled an agreement between her and fellow candidates Liberal Party standard-bearer Mar Roxas and Vice President Jejomar Binay to keep the campaign “friendly and dignified.”

It was made during a prayer service by Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Cardinal Tagle in September.

Tagle reminded the candidates that being a leader meant being of service and that they should not forget that a leader must be the first to feel what the people were going through, she noted.

Poe, who is battling attempts to kick her out of the race for the presidency, also said personal ambitions should not triumph over the desire to improve how things were done in the country.

This kind of ambition, she said, could lead to dirty tricks against opponents.

“I presume we all want the same thing for the country, which is ultimately, to uplift the lives of our fellow Filipinos. Let us not make this about personal ambitions because if we do, the tendency is to employ all means, even dirty tactics, to eliminate those who stand in our way,” she said.

The Commission on Elections disqualified Poe from the race for the presidency, saying that she failed to meet the 10-year residency requirement and that she could not be considered a natural-born Filipino because she was a foundling.

She believes her rivals were behind the move to take her out of the running.

Poe also said she was earlier told that her having no “black ops” was a problem. But she said she and her running mate wanted to have a positive campaign.

They want to focus on what they could do for the country, she added.

Meanwhile, Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who is running for Vice President, also called on candidates to continue their holiday ceasefire on mud-slinging and character assassination.

“Now and during the campaign period, we candidates should present to the electorate discourses, speeches and statements that are issue-based and in a dignified and decent manner,” said Marcos.

The candidates have shown that they could stop the trash talk during the holidays and there is no reason not to continue the practice, he said.

“I can’t see any reason why it could not be done during the entire campaign period. The people are waiting to hear solutions to the lingering problems of the country and it should be given to them. It would be an insult to their intelligence if this is sidelined by nonsense quarrels,” he said.

Sen. Francis Escudero, meanwhile, shrugged off earlier reports that alleged supporters of Poe, his running mate, had criticized him for supposedly abandoning her.