NP kicks off election campaign period on high note
February 9, 2010 10:50 pm
By Jelly F. Musico
CALAMBA City, Laguna, Feb. 9 – Presidential candidate Manny Villar and fellow national candidates of the Nacionalista Party (NP) took this birth place of national hero Jose Rizal by storm, kicking off the 90-day election campaign period with plenty of promises mostly aim at ending war against poverty.
Accompanied by his running mate Senator Loren Legarda and all his senatorial bets, Villar vowed to personally spearhead the fight against poverty if he gets elected as next president of the country.
”Like the generation of Jose Rizal faced by the challenge to free from the foreign invasion, we have also goal today which is to free our country from extreme poverty,” Villar said in his kick-off campaign speech.
”I want to achieve our objective for our country that all of us will succeed in our fight against poverty and bring back the honor for every Filipino,” Villar said.
With the help of his vice presidential candidate and his senatoriables, Villar said the country would be able to compete with its rich neighbor countries by improving the economy.
Villar also cited some of his platform of government that include better education, free medicines and fight against graft and corruption.
”Let us fight for a better future. Let us respond to the call for freedom poverty,” Villar said.
Famous television host Willie Revillame brought the whole cast of his noon time program “Wowowie” to the delight of the more than 10,000 crowd that jampacked the town plaza.
The NP national candidates started the day with a motorcade in some areas throughout the town of Calamba and some areas in Laguna province like Binan, Sta. Rosa and Cabuyao.
Legarda, a native of San Pablo, Laguna, vowed to run “a clean, solid campaign for the people”.
“My bid for the vice-presidency will focus on humanitarian relief assistance and awareness, jobs fair, feeding programs and environmental protection projects. My campaign will deviate from traditional political campaigning,” said Legarda.
Aside from fighting the poverty, Legarda also promised to focus her platform of government on war against natural and man-made disasters.
“I will focus on what will help the Filipinos improve their lives and steer them clear of the threats of calamities, social injustice, poverty and unemployment, hunger, corruption and hopelessness. I will devote my public life to a humanitarian purpose,” said Legarda.
At the public markets of Binan and Sta. Rosa, Legarda took time to hear the people’s complaints ranging from higher prices of prime commodities and still higher prices of medicines despite the passage of the Cheaper Medicine Law.
”One of our platform of government is to bring down the prices of medicines and if possible, make them free for our under privilege countrymen,” Legarda said.
The present members of Villar’s senatorial line-up include senators Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Bong Revilla Jr. and Pia Cayetano, Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos, Gilbert Remulla, Satur Ocampo, Liza Maza, Adel Tamano, Toots Ople, Gwen Pimentel, Ariel Queruben and Ramon Mitra.
Remulla, NP spokesman who is also running for senator, believed that Villar would be able to maintain the upward momentum in the surveys.
”We have to maintain our momentum. We are on upward momentum now,” Remulla said in a media interview.
Senator Allan Peter Cayetano urged other presidential candidates to focus on their platform of government now that the election campaign period for the national candidates has officially started in various areas in the country.
”Now that the election campaign has officially started, we better concentrate on platform of government, on how they should govern the country once they win,” Cayetano said.
Remulla said the whole ticket of NP would resume province hopping on Thursday, visiting Cavite while taking stop in Batangas on Friday and Pampanga on Saturday.
”We have to work really hard in this campaign,” Remulla said.
Tamano, son of former senator Mamintal Tamano, said the NP would focus its campaign in the local level to strengthen the chances of Villar in the presidency.
Marcos, son of former strongman Ferdinand Marcos, agreed with Tamano that the NP candidates have to maximize the time in reaching the whole electorate in the provinces.
”We are pressured because of the time. It is difficult to find ways to maximize the time and we can achieve that through unity,” Marcos said.
Santiago said she was running again to continue her unfinished business in the Senate, which is to fight the graft and corruption.
Villar has reclaimed his previous number one spot in voters’ choice for president after garnering a 46 percent rating against the 45 percent of Aquino in the latest Pulse Asia poll.
Villar will overtake Aquino by one percentage point under a two-cornered fight based on the survey conducted by Pulse Asia January 22 to 26, 2010 among 1,800 respondents.
The “one-on-one” scenario was contained in the similar Pulse Asia survey showing the gap between Villar and Aquino closing in with the NP standard-bearer receiving 35 percent against Aquino’s 37 percent or a margin of two percentage points. (PNA) RMA/jfm
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