Partido Reporma president Alvarez says party had to change its standard bearer after Lacson’s poor showing in surveys
(Eagle News) – Presidential candidate Senator Panfilo Lacson resigned on Thursday, March 24, from Partido Reporma and would be running as an independent presidential bet after his party supported Vice-President Leni Robredo, instead of him, as its standard bearer.
This surprising twist of events happened less than two months before the May 9, 2022 elections.
The Partido Reporma president former House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez Jr., decided to throw the party’s support for Robredo, leaving Lacson no choice but to leave the party and run as independent presidential candidate. This is his second time to run as an independent presidential bet. The first time was in 2004 elections when he run against then incumbent president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
“Today, I officially announce my resignation as chairman and member of Partido ng Demokratikong Reporma, which effectively makes me an independent candidate for the presidency in the upcoming May 2022 elections,” Lacson said in a statement on Thursday, March 24.
“Considering that it is at the behest of these top-tier officials that I was recruited as a member and the party’s standard-bearer and thereafter elected as its chairman, I believe it is only decent and proper — consistent with my time-honored uncompromising principles — to make this decision,” he explained.
Partido Reporma president Alvarez, who is also the incumbent Davao Del Norte first district representative, also issued a statement shifting the party’s support to Robredo from Lacson.
Alvarez said that this was due to the recent turn of events showing Robredo’s “traction” in surveys. The Vice-President has consistently been a far second in surveys, after former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. Lacson, in the surveys, ranked either fourth or fifth in the presidential surveys.
“Our ground leaders have expressed their wish to participate in that brave calling. And that is why, a hard choice must be made. With a heavy heart, many members of Partido Reporma are constrained to consider a candidate other than their first choice,” Alvarez said in a statement.
“We need a leader. And for the 2022 Presidential elections, given all these considerations and the crisis we have to overcome, that leader is a woman. Her name is Leni Robredo.”
-Alvarez cites Robredo’s “traction” in surveys-
Alvarez in his statement noted that the electoral terrain for the 2022 elections, while far from the ideal, showed the reality on the ground where two presidential bets – Marcos Jr., and Robredo – pulling away from the rest of the candidates as they showed consistently being the top 1 and top 2 presidential bets in surveys.
Because of this, he said, although Lacson was “ the most qualified to be President,” the party had to choose another candidate to support.
“Time and context framed the narrative of 2022 in a way that gave traction, rightly or wrongly, to other candidacies instead. This is a difficult fact which takes courage to admit,” Alvarez said.
He noted that while Robredo “still lags far behind from the frontrunner” in suveys referring to Marcos, “it is evident that her campaign has gained, and continues to gain, significant traction.”
“There is much potential there. She has also shown that she represents ideals which are substantially in line with the aims of Partido Reporma,” Alvarez said.
(Eagle News Service)