Partido Reporma presidential candidate Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson and running mate Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III do not have to follow a script when they speak to the public because everything they say comes from their hearts.

According to the duo, they are aligned in both principles and truthfulness to the Filipinos they have served for many decades.

The veteran tandem emphasized this Thursday, Feb. 10 during their “Meet the Press” with reporters, who were persistent in picking their minds on their decisions to offload fellow Senator Sherwin Gatchalian from their ticket’s senatorial slate after the latter publicly declared his support for another pairing.

Today, the two veteran lawmakers are in Southern Mindanao for scheduled rallies in Davao City and Tagum City.

Lacson was the first to speak on the issue in the hybrid press conference at their headquarters in Greenhills, San Juan City. He underscored what he said earlier in the day about Gatchalian through his personal Twitter account @iampinglacson.

Sotto, who arrived about 10 minutes later for the presscon, then said the same things to the journalists about Gatchalian, a partymate in the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) that he chairs.

‘’Let me just add. No, we (Sotto and I) haven’t coordinated (on this). But you see how consistent we are. When I told you guys what I told you earlier, (notice I) said the very same things (as Sotto)... today. That’s how consistent we are, that’s how we read (each other),’’ Lacson told the media.

‘’You know, we don’t need to talk every day to know what we should say, what’s our dialogue, what’s our script – we have no script,’’ he added.

The tandem, who have a combined 42 years of serving in the Senate and 83 years total in public service, stressed they have never imposed on their slate’s candidates beyond what they had agreed on before the official campaign started – that the guest senatoriables didn’t have to endorse the Lacson-Sotto pair as long as they didn’t endorse outright other candidates.

"What we saw was that they have chosen to embrace a different set of advocacies and principles. And to us, our principles are non-negotiable. That’s why we set standards even before we adopted them (as candidates),’’ Lacson said.