The tandem of former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio will woo Metro Manila voters today (Wednesday) with a grand caravan that will start with a meet-and-greet at the eastbound lane of Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City in front of the Commission on Audit at 7:30 a.m.
It will then proceed along Commonwealth Avenue and Quezon Avenue and will end at Welcome Rotunda at the city’s boundary with Manila.
The Quezon City component of the event has been organized by the Malayang Quezon City tandem of mayoral candidate Mike Defensor and his running mate District 2 Councilor Winnie Castelo.
“BBM and Mayor Sara are hugely popular and enjoy wide support in Quezon City and Metro Manila,” said Defensor, incumbent representative of the Anakalusugan party-list.
Defensor said he, Castelo and their supporters had planned to have a gathering for Marcos and Duterte-Carpio at the Quezon City Memorial Circle.
“We abandoned that in favor of joining the caravan after the city government gave us the runaround in our application for a permit for the gathering. They effectively rejected our application,” Defensor said.
He said the city government “acted as if they own QCMC, which is a public park that is owned by the people.”
Expected to join Defensor and Castelo in tomorrow’s event are their congressional candidates: reelectionists Anthony Peter “Onyx” Crisologo (first district), Precious Hipolito-Castelo (second district), and Allan Reyes (third district); Councilor Marvin Rillo (fourth district); businesswoman Rose Lin (fifth district); and former Rep. Vincent “Bingbong” Crisologo (sixth district).
Meanwhile, Marcos spokesman Vic Rodriguez lamented the mounting disqualification cases filed against the former senator.
“While we maintain that these petitions are nothing but nuisance cases, we urge those who are behind these pathetic stunts to please respect the Filipino people and their democratic right to decide for themselves and their collective future,” Rodriguez said.
“We also urge them not to remove the right of the people to freely choose their leader and stop looking down on the intelligence of the Filipino people. Elections are won and settled on election day and not through the filing of nuisance petitions,” he added.
Another disqualification case was filed against Marcos on Tuesday – the eighth one to date – by a group of Ilocanos before the Commission on Elections.
Pudno Nga Ilokano (Ang Totoong Ilokano) petitioners include Margarita Salonga Salandanan, Crisanto Ducusin Palabay, Mario Flores Ben, Danilo Austria Consumido, Raoul Hafalla Tividad, Nida Mallare Gatchallan, and Nomer Calulot Kuan.
In their petition, the group said Marcos was convicted by Quezon City Regional Trial Court in 1995 over his failure to file his income tax returns as governor of Ilocos Norte for taxable years 1982 to 1985.
“While we have cited the same reasons as most of the earlier cases did, we would like to add our voice and arguments to disallow a person by the name of Marcos to aspire for, much more become president, of the country to which he willfully and arrogantly refused to pay taxes to,” the group said.
