Presidential aspirant Leody de Guzman on Friday, Jan. 4 said ‘’dapat ako’’ (it should be me) to become the next President of the Republic.
During a KBP Presidential Candidate forum, de Guzman said past Philippine presidents came from the top of Philippine society who were billionaires or elitists who protected their own.
So nothing happened to the poor, he added.
"What the country needs, according to de Guzman, is new politics.. a politics of the people and not of the few," he stressed.
He also said the country needs a labor leader who for the past 38 years fought for them through his platforms.
During a round of questions, De Guzman said he is against reclamation projects in the country as they would affect the environment.
There is a pressing need for good management of the environment as a degraded environment leads to global warming, he pointed out.
Protecting the environment is a Philippine contribution to international agreements on global warming.
When asked about railroad projects in Mindanao during a KBP Presidential Candidate forum, De Guzman stressed the need for a mass transport system.
But transport projects still pending should be shelved so that the funds would be shunted to the heath sector and the countryside to create jobs, he said.
As the number of drug dependents in the country’s jail is growing, De Guzman maintained that drug addiction should be treated as a health problem.
De Guzman, likewise, emphasized that the national government should improve and equip district hospitals following complaints that they are not attended to.
An interviewer pointed out that some hospitals are like the ‘’Mona Lisa’’ song where a line is: ‘’They lie there, they die there.’’
But what is more important, according to de Guzman, is to improve the agriculture so that citizens would be healthy.
He said students should also encouraged to take up medicine and nursing.