Oldest aspirant asks for halt to mudslinging tactics

LEGAZPI, Albay: The United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) should cease from launching personal attacks against Team PNoy Senatorial candidates for good, former Sen. Ramon Magsaysay, Jr. said Saturday.

Magsaysay, the oldest candidate of the administration slate at 74 years old, was responding to the call of the UNA bets to observe ceasefire in observance of the Holy Week where Catholics recount the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In the Philippines, at least 80 percent of the Filipinos are Catholic.

“We welcome it [ceasefire] because our campaign in Team PNoy is really issue-based. I hope it will stay that way, even after Holy Week, so that people will be more informed and wise in choosing the candidates whom they will vote,” Magsaysay told reporters.

Magsaysay underscored that Sen. Franklin Drilon, the campaign manager Team PNoy, made it a point to remind the administration bets not to engage in character assassination during the course of the rigorous campaign.

Rep. Tobias Tiangco of Navotas, UNA’s campaign managers, has earlier questioned the integrity of Team PNoy Senate bet Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino 4th and Team PNoy spokesman and Rep. Romero Quimbo because they served as the chairman of the National Youth Commission and the President of the Home Development Mutual Fund, respectively, during the administration of former President Gloria Arroyo.

Aquino and Quimbo quit the Arroyo administration in 2006, at the height of the Hello, Garci scandal which features a recorded conversation between then President Arroyo and election official Virgilio Garcillano amid the canvassing of votes during the 2004 Presidential elections.

Team PNoy, Magsaysay said, is only bent on doing one thing: campaigning for support for the reforms made by President Benigno Aquino 3rd.

“We never resort to personal attacks or sensationalism. If other groups are issuing below the belt statements, that’s their problem. We cannot control them,” Magsaysay said.