Senators Panfilo Lacson and Vicente Sotto III on Wednesday launched their bid for President and Vice President in 2022, respectively, vowing to restore order and trust in government institutions and an end to wrongs they say Filipinos have long endured.
They will be running against fellow Senator Christopher “Bong” Go, who was formally nominated by the ruling PDP-Laban party yesterday to run with President Rodrigo Duterte, who accepted his vice-presidential nomination.
Other fellow lawmakers, like Senator Manny Pacquiao, may battle the Lacson-Sotto tandem by the time the deadline for filing certificates of candidacy for next year’s polls comes around next month.
A spectacle of lights, music and testimonials heralded the candidacies of Lacson and Sotto, giving the country a preview to an unprecedented pandemic-time campaign.
They were the first tandem to officially declare and launch their candidacies.
It is Lacson’s second time to run for president, having lost his bid to Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2004, while it is Sotto’s first bid for the vice presidency.
Present at the event taped live and aired across broadcast and online channels were the candidates, their families, production staff, and a select audience all tested for COVID-19.
“This is the time to correct what is wrong. This is the start,” said Sotto, the current Senate President, who was first to come out, walking to the stage to “Magkaisa,” the iconic People Power anthem he wrote.
“The right leadership should be based on leadership by example not in words but in deeds. No leader can succeed if he cannot practice what he preaches,” said Lacson, the former national police chief and long-time senator who entered the venue to a song that chanted his name.
He touted his and Sotto’s “over 80 years of honest, dedicated and competent public service” between them.
Outlining his platform, Lacson said aside from fixing the Philippines’ pandemic response, he would also push to give local governments more power and fiscal autonomy should he win the presidency.
“Local government units must be given more responsibility in nation-building, but also more accountability,” he said.
“The national government will be their big brother watching over their shoulders,” Lacson said.
Sotto, a former television and movie star and the son of a senator, said their tandem would be appealing especially to Filipinos who have been mum about their frustrations with the government.
“This is not about Lacson and Sotto. It’s about you,” he said. “ You are the ones who we want to serve. The ones who keep mum. The simple and ordinary citizens… in a manner that will not transgress law and order, but is based on law and discipline,” he said.