The Nationalist People’s Coalition has declared the choice of presidential candidates a free zone for its members, but they are being asked to support the NPC vice presidential and senatorial bets, Senate President Vicente Sotto III said on Tuesday, April 19.
Sotto, who is the NPC chairman, is running for vice president along with presidential candidate Panfilo Lacson.
NPC senatorial bet Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito and Sotto met with NPC Negros Occidental members led by Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson in Bacolod City to seek their support and outline their platforms.
Sotto said he and 10 council of leaders run the NPC.
They agreed to declare the presidency a free zone since some NPC members already made commitments to their presidential bets, Sotto said.
Gov. Lacson has declared his support for Vice President Leni Robredo for president.
Sotto said NPC is also calling on its members to support senatorial candidates Ejercito, Loren Legarda, Francis Escudero and Emmanuel “Manny” Piñol. The four are all members of the NPC, he said.
“As far as vice president the mandate of the party is to support its chairman,” Sotto said, so he is confident the NPC members in Negros will do so.
Sotto said he worked for the cityhood of Kabankalan, Talisay, Victorias and Silay. “I’ve done a lot for Negros Occidental, if you ask the other vice presidential bets I don’t think you’ll get an answer as precise as mine, “ Sotto said.
‘NOT MY RELATIVE’
Asked if Senator Francis Pangilinan’s running for vice president has affected family relations, Sotto said “he’s not my relative, he’s married to a relative of my wife”.
Pangilinan is married to Sharon Cuneta who is the niece of Helen Gamboa, the wife of Sotto.
OUT OF SCRIPT
On presidential candidate Isko Moreno calling for Robredo to withdraw from the presidential race on Sunday, Sotto said if he was running the press conference he would not have diverted from the main topic.
Moreno admitted that he was out of script, Sotto pointed out.
The joint statement of the presidential candidates at the press conference was to stress that they were not withdrawing from the electoral race, Sotto pointed out.
MORE FUNDS FOR PROVINCES
Governor Lacson said Sotto, during his meeting with the Negros officials on Tuesday, said if he wins the vice presidency he will ensure that more funds are allocated to the provinces.
Sotto said every year the country has savings of over P300 billion so P1 billion each can be given to the 81 provinces, and P200 million for each of the local government units, Lacson added.
He can convince whoever the president is to allocate the funds, Sotto said.
Aside from the governor, two congressmen, eight mayors and five board members of Negros Occidental are NPC members.
EJERCITO
Ejercito called on Negrenses to support his senatorial bid.
He will champion the cause of the sugar industry and will further improve the universal health care law, which he had authored, Ejercito said.
It was passed in 2019 and is a work in progress, the former senator said.
Ejercito said it has been a tough battle of him and thankfully he has been in the top 12 in the surveys.*