Senatorial aspirant Emmanuel "Manny" Piñol said the Philippines would be in a much better situation, politically and economically, if Filipinos decide to elect presidential candidate Senator Panfilo "Ping" Lacson, an incorruptible public servant, as their next leader.
Piñol made this declaration Friday evening, May 6 when he joined Lacson and their fellow candidates in a "miting de avance" at the Verdant Square in Carmona, Cavite to conclude the 90-day national campaign period.
In his speech, Piñol said a vote for Lacson as the 17th president of the republic would never go to waste.
He, however, fears It would be such a waste if Filipinos vote for a popular but wrong kind of leader, one who might only take the entire nation on the brink of collapse.
‘’If he doesn’t win as our president, the Filipino people will be missing a golden opportunity of changing the future of this country. Ping Lacson is the only candidate who has pure intentions (for our nation). He is really sincere in his desire to keep serving our countrymen,’’ he said of Lacson.
‘’Let us not waste our opportunity to be led by a good leader, an honest leader, who can change the direction of this country. Let us not lose our track in making the right decision. Let us choose who is right, not who is popular,’’ he added.
Piñol explained the reason he chose Lacson is because of his support for his proposed agricultural policies that will ensure food security for the country through increased food production and the establishment of food terminals nationwide.
This way the Philippines could avoid suffering the same fate as a nation like Venezuela, which, despite its enviable position as an oil-producing country, ended up on an economic downward spiral because of its corrupt politicians, who relied on too much importation among other bad economic policies, he pointed out.
’’It relied purely on importation because during its period of prosperity, Venezuela did not plant (its own food). It neglected its agriculture industry to the point that when their oil industry collapsed, the people ended up starving. Let us not allow that to happen in our country,’’ he added.
The South American nation has been going through a widespread socioeconomic and political crisis since the late 2000s and worsened under the presidency of a disputed leader. Incidences of hyperinflation, starvation, increased crime and mortality rates have been reported in the country.
Piñol is hoping that instead of Venezuela, the Philippines would emulate Israel, which considers food security as important as national security. He also took the opportunity to thank everyone, particularly the farmers and fisheries sectors nationwide, who keep supporting his senatorial bid.
He said mounting a senatorial campaign for the first time in his public service career was difficult because he did not have the same financial resources as other candidates. So, he had to be creative about his strategy to promote himself as well as his agriculture and environmental advocacies.
‘’This campaign has not been easy on my part. I did not have the money. So, instead of producing more tarpaulins, I distributed bamboo propagules—giant bamboo—all over the country,’’ he said.
The former agriculture chief said he ended up dishing out 600,000 bamboo seedlings all over the country during the entire campaign period, which he said would outlive the tarpaulins beyond the election season.
“I pray that on May 9 the light of wisdom will shine upon us and we will realize that to change this country, we have to elect a rightful leader and that leader is Panfilo ‘Ping’ Lacson. Sa inyo po sa Cavite, maraming salamat sa inyong suporta (To all of you here in Cavite, thank you very much for your support),” Piñol added toward the end of his speech.