• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Former Vice President Leni Robredo has called on Negrenses, who supported her during the 2016 and 2022 elections, to rally behind independent senatorial candidates Bam Aquino and Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan.
“We need good people in the Senate,” she said in an interview in Bacolod City on Wednesday, March 19.
Of all the senatorial aspirants, Aquino and Pangilinan are the ones she knows well as they have worked together since 2016, she said, adding that the two senatorial candidates also share her advocacies.
Pangilinan was Robredo’s running mate in the 2022 presidential and vice presidential elections while Aquino served as their campaign manager.
Robredo won as vice president during the 2016 elections.
Considered a major electoral battleground, Negros Occidental has now more than two million voters, according to the Commission on Election.
Aquino and Pangilinan also got the support of Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose, who endorsed them during the campaign rally that gathered a crowd of about 4,000 at the Paglaum Sports Complex in Bacolod City Wednesday night.
Former governor Rafael Coscolluela also expressed his support to the senatorial bid of Aquino and Pangilinan.
Former senator Leila de Lima, the number one nominee for the Mamamayang Liberal partylist, and Negrense Gary Alejano, a nominee for the Magdalo partylist, also joined the political activity.
“Many are not inclined to support a straight team so they’re looking for possible alternative candidates. And that is where I’ll endorse Senator Pangilinan and Senator Aquino as the alternative, being independent candidates, and not as opposition to the present administration,” Lacson said. | GB
