Escudero hits LP, UNA ‘doublespeak’
Vice presidential aspirant Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero has expressed disappointment at Vice President Jejomar Binay and Liberal Party (LP) standard bearer Manuel “Mar” Roxas II following the revelation of former Sen. Richard Gordon that he was asked by friends from the Liberal Party and the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) to file a disqualification case against leading presidential contender, Sen. Grace PoeLlamanzares.
Escudero, Poe’s running mate, said Gordon’s disclosure makes it difficult to give leaders of both parties the benefit of the doubt.
“It's getting harder and harder to give the leaders of LP and UNA the benefit of the doubt given the revelations of Sen. Gordon,” Escudero said in a statement.
“When your leaders say one thing and do another, it does not speak well of their character nor of their capacity to lead the nation. Our people expect honesty, not doublespeak; integrity, not deceit,” the senator added.
In an interview over ANC Headstart, Gordon, the Philippine Red Cross chair who is making a Senate comeback said he was approached by his friend, schoolmates from the University of the Philippines (UP) who are members of LP and UNA to file a disqualification case against Poe.
Uneven field But Gordon did not bite. In a separate radio interview, Gordon said he was approached about two months ago and was egged by friends and fraternity brothers who are members of LP and UNA to file a disqualification case against Poe and make a quick entry to the Senate.
There were three or four who he said were serious in their proposal.
Gordon, being the 13th elected senator in the 2013 elections would benefit should Poe be disqualified.
“In fairness to them, there is a case but leave it be, it can be decided by the Supreme Court either way. It can decide vox populi suprema lex – the people have spoken and therefore that is the fundamental law,” Gordon told ANC.
“I'm not interested in getting it from the backdoor. I want to make sure the people realize that if they're going to get a country, if they will have real leaders, they have to have honest-to-goodness, clean and fair election. You don't have that right now. The field is not level,” he said.
Gordon said Poe thanked him for rejecting the proposal.
Name names Roxas challenged Gordon to name names. He said all the claims linking the LP to any mudslinging and black propaganda will remain an allegation for as long as those who are alleging would not give further details. Mon Ilagan, spokesperson of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) said “it is not in the Party's culture to resort to mudslinging just to improve our ratings and bring someone down."
Ilagan said Binay is himself a victim of black propaganda and does not wish his rivals to go through the same ordeal.
Binay and Poe's adoptive father, the late king of Philippine movies Fernando Poe Jr. or FPJ, go way back and nothing will ever erase the Binay-FPJ friendship, Ilagan added.
“Our plea to our opponents: Let's be honorable and not use malicious methods in misleading the public," Ilagan, a former mayor of Cainta said.
Stop it Escudero echoed Gordon’s appeal saying he, too, is raising the call for the public to raise the level of politics in the country.
“C.S. Lewis said that integrity is doing the right thing even when no one is watching. Hindi yung subukan natin, baka makalusot,” Escudero said.
“If Mar believes that Grace is Filipino, he should explicitly tell LP members and supporters to stop making an issue of it. The same holds true for VP Binay, who also invited Grace to be his VP,” Escudero pointed out.
“Perhaps they were hoping Sen. Gordon could give credence to the false charges against Sen. Poe, being an accomplished public servant. We maintain our call for all candidates to keep the campaign clean, platformbased and on a professional level,” Escudero appealed. (With reports from Ellson A. Quismorio and Aaron B. Recuenco)