Legarda dares Aquino-Roxas to End “Dirty Tricks” – Press Statement of NP-NPC-LDP Vice Presidential Candidate Loren Legarda

SINCE THIS NATIONAL CAMPAIGN STARTED, MY SONS AND I HAVE BEEN DEEPLY TROUBLED BY THE FLOOD OF LIES AND SLANDER OBVIOUSLY DIRECTED AGAINST OUR PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE AND MYSELF, CHURNED BY THE DIRTY TRICKS AND WRECKING CREWS OF THE LIBERAL PARTY.
All these months, my family and I have kept our silence on this matter, simply because when I decided to run for office, I — together with my standard bearer and members of our alliance — have vowed to run a positive campaign, focusing on a program of action and solutions to problems that beset our nation.
But today, in the strongest possible terms, I have decided to come out and condemn the campaign of lies, slander and assault to our personal integrity engineered by the Aquino-Roxas camp. This barrage of propaganda of the lowest kind is appalling for the following reasons:
• It smacks of aristocratic elitism (that is, ugaling mata pobre) that the candidacies of persons like me or Sen. Villar, who don’t belong to traditional wealthy and oligarchic families, are automatically suspected of being motivated by opportunism and material gain-seeking. Dahil ba sila’y anak sa angkan ng mayayaman, ang tingin nila sa iba ay umaasenso lang dahil sa pangungurakot?
• A battle between good and evil? It is patent dishonesty and a disservice to the ideals of good governance that the Liberal Party camp has had to cook up the ‘evil enemy’ and demonize their adversaries so that the Aquino-Roxas tandem can present themselves as the moral force of ‘good’ in a battle against their ‘evil’ opponents I believe that good, honest people don’t need to create demons for their virtues to shine through.
• This style of slander, fabrication and lies mis-educates the electorate. It degrades and corrupts our election culture. To nurture and raise the quality of our democracy, we need an electorate who are well informed of important issues and thus will vote on the basis of good understanding of alternative platforms and solutions offered by candidates. Lies and slander meant to destroy the personal character and integrity of other candidates harm the development of an intelligent and discriminating electorate, to say the least. Huwag n’yo naman lasunin ang isipan ng mga tao.
I dare Senators Aquino and Roxas therefore to take a strong stand on this matter, and to condemn this dirty and demeaning campaign that is obviously coming from their party. By condoning this, the character of their leadership is in question. If they don’t stop this smear campaign now and apologize to the Filipino people, what would stop them from employing the same strategy of lying and slander for the rest of their public lives?