Over 1,300 alumni and students of the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Law backed the presidential bid of Vice President Leni Robredo.
The 1,308 signatories stressed the importance of the May 2022 elections, asserting that "failure to make the right choices would mean more suffering for the Filipino people, more oppression, and more injustice."
They added that the Philippines is currently "experiencing a crisis of values" and is currently burdened with debt, fragile economy, corruption, and geopolitical problems surrounding the West Philippine Sea.
"For the sake of our country and the future of our children, we cannot afford to elect leaders who lack integrity, competence, patriotism, and vision to manage this crisis," the signatories said.
"Among the candidates for the May 2202 elections, we believe that the right person for the Presidency is Leni Robredo. For decades, Leni Robredo has shown compassion, integrity, competence, patriotism, and vision to steer our country out of various crises," they added.
According to UP Law students and educators, Robredo's leadership "is what we need to climb out of our present predicament, rebuild our economy, rework our justice system, and to preserve our national patrimony."
The signatories also decried the possible return of the Marcoses' possible return to Malacañang, adding that to allow presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to become the country's next president, "debases the memory of all who have suffered and died under his family's rule."
"The way forward cannot be at the expense of forgetting our history. To elect the unrepentant son of a dictator who would like us to 'move on' from the plunder and murder of his family's brutal regime eviscerates the Rule of Law we have labored so hard to rebuild," they said.
"It will institutionalize impunity and unequal application of the law as he himself files a claim for his father's plundered wealth and continues to resist paying taxes long overdue," they added.