Following high-preference ratings for Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso as the top choice to become president in the 2022 elections in recent surveys, former Cabinet secretaries threw their full support behind the presidential bid of the Manila City Mayor on Wednesday.
Former Executive Secretary Ruben Torres, former Agrarian Reform Secretary Hernani Braganza, and former Trade and Agriculture Undersecretary Ernesto Ordoňez went to City Hall to personally convey their full support behind the Aksyon Demokratiko presidential tandem of Mayor Isko and his running mate, Dr. Willie Ong.
Former Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Montemayor also held a virtual conference with Moreno to ask for his plan and seek his commitment to the agriculture sector if he becomes president.
He was joined by Bong Inciong, president of the United Broiler Raisers Association (UBRA), and Danilo Fausto, national chairman of the Dairy Confederation of the Philippines.
Torres served under former President Fidel Ramos while Braganza and Montemayor were in the Cabinet of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
“Mayor, what you said was that you had big ears, meaning you are ready to listen, those words were all resoundingly loud to our people. You also said before, in your declaration speech, that ‘our’ plan, that is ours, is like the flag of the Philippines that we will weave from fiber and thread that will come from you,” Montemayor said.
Montemayor’s group sent to Moreno their proposed 12-point agenda for a better Philippine agriculture sector.
The former Cabinet men lauded Moreno’s plans to cut taxes on oil and electricity by half and the establishment of cold storage and post-harvest facilities in all provinces and other vital areas across the country.
They also praised his plan for the creation of jobs by stimulating medium, small and micro enterprises (MSMEs) in the countryside by appropriating 30 percent of local government units’ (LGUs) windfall from the Mandanas ruling for loans for the sector.
“They are game-changing, revolutionary, creative and based on facts,” Ordoňez said.
Braganza, also a former press secretary, said this is the first time that he heard an aspiring president that is willing to sacrifice the government coffers for the sake of the ordinary people.