The tandem of Partido Reporma chairman and presidential candidate Panfilo “Ping” Lacson and his running mate Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III are the “strongest” pair among aspirants in the 2022 national elections and appear to be the readiest to perform the duties of the country’s top posts.

This was stressed in a press statement issued by the Partido Reporma party which quoted Malou Tiquia, a political strategist, who was interviewed in the “Politics as Usual” program hosted by Pia Hontiveros on CNN Philippines, Tuesday evening (Nov. 23).

Tiquia said the Lacson-Sotto tandem has all the combined experience compared to other aspirants in the May polls next year, which would serve them well both in the campaign and when the people elect them as President and Vice President.

“It takes more than just being around and being active in the arena. If you’re going to look at tandems, the tandem of Lacson and Sotto have all the experience, combined experience,” said Tiquia on the program, which discussed the topic “Political capital: Spending it on your anointed.”

“The reason why I always say I look at the Lacson-Sotto tandem as the dark horse (is) because they have the capability to come from behind. If the President (who is anointing his successor) is saying, let’s look for a strong President, sino 'yun? Who’s the strongest? If you scale through the list, it would appear ‘yung dalawang ready on day one is apparently that tandem,” she added.

“It takes more than just that (being close to the President) to be President. I have to remind your listeners (that) we need a leader who has been tested by time because we are going on a reboot. Yung ekonomiya is very important,” Tiquia told Hontiveros.

Former Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno, Lacson’s campaign manager who was also on the program, added: “As Malou says, experience is very important.”

“For example, as she says, the experience of Senator Lacson and Senator Sotto. That is unparalleled anywhere, nobody else has that kind of experience, so they don’t really need endorsements from anybody, their endorsement comes from their own performance themselves,” Puno said.

“They’ve proven, in everything they have done, that they have the wherewithal, the experience, courage and the discipline to be able to do what needs to be done,” he added.

While Lacson and Sotto may not be leading the surveys during this unofficial campaign period, Tiquia expects the landscape to change next year, when the official campaign period begins on February 9.

“But things will change once we hit February. I think in the last 48 days, 50 days, that tandem (Lacson-Sotto) has remained quiet and was going to and reaching out to people. Now that is campaigning,” she said.

Tiquia challenged CNN viewers and Filipinos to “patuloy na maging mapanuri. Hindi pa tapos ang halalan, lahat ng nakikitang ratings sa surveys, those are pre-campaign ratings.”

“Let us be conscious of that and let’s look at the platforms, tigilan na natin 'yung personality-driven at tirahan, tingnan natin ang plataporma, kasi ang 2022, mahalagang makabangon tayo,” she added.