ZAMBOANGA CITY, 30 April 2004 — Sen. Panfilo Lacson yesterday promised to carry out a massive anti-corruption campaign in government if he is elected president of the Philippines on May 10.
Campaigning in the southern port city of Zamboanga, the former national police chief also said he would launch a campaign to eliminate kidnap-for-ransom gangs, particularly the Abu Sayyaf extremist group.
“There will be a sweeping drive against graft and corruption in government,” Lacson said in a rally on his return from a campaign sortie to Jolo Island, south of Zamboanga.
“The Abu Sayyaf must be erased from the surface of the earth. They should not exist anywhere and they must be eliminated,” he said, to the cheers of thousands of supporters.
Business in Zamboanga City had been badly affected by Abu Sayyaf militants, who have been snatching and killing foreigners and local businessmen for the past decades, supposedly to further their aim of establishing an independent Muslim state in the southern Philippines.
Thousands of supporters turned up in Jolo and Zamboanga to meet Lacson and his lone senatorial candidate, Rep. Carlos Padilla of Nueva Vizcaya province.
“Ping Lacson...Ping Lacson,” supporters chanted as they walked with their candidate through Jolo market.
A no-nonsense retired general feared by criminals and his fellow former officers in the military and police, Lacson was the first national candidate to capaign in Jolo, a known stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf, about 950 km from Manila.
“We walked through the market and the people welcomed us. There are so many people who were waiting for Senator Panfilo Lacson. It was really a warm welcome,” said Idris Sangkula, a supporter who was with the politician’s group.
In Zamboanga, a rowdy welcome filled the air as Lacson and his supporters motorcaded around the city. In the downtown area, he got off his van and walked in busy streets and shook hands with admirers who waited for hours for his arrival.
As he campaigned from one shop to another and knocked on the doors of department stores and shook hands with people, the crowd swelled, stalling traffic. Drivers responded by honking their car horns and jabbed their fists in the air — Lacson’s campaign trademark.
Lacson’s party was also showered with confetti from buildings by supporters, mostly employees of shopping malls. Some rolled down banners with Lacson’s name — “President Ping Lacson, Our Only Hope!”
Lacson predicted a landslide victory in the Zamboanga Peninsula, which comprises the port city and the provinces of Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga Sibugay, where Lacson claimed to have huge numbers of followers.
“Zamboanga Peninsula is mine. We smell victory in Zamboanga Peninsula because of the huge number of support we are getting from the people,” he said.
At a press conference later in the day, Lacson said there is no more hope in uniting with fellow opposition candidate Fernando Poe Jr. (FPJ) because neither of them is willing to give way for a single opposition bet.
Poe is running under the opposition party KNP (Coalition of United Filipinos) and was trailing incumbent Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in poll surveys.
“There is no more chance now that we can unite. We will only unify to safeguard our votes against cheating by the Arroyo government in the May 10 elections,” he said.
Lacson said latest poll surveys by independent groups which showed Arroyo leading over other candidates were manipulated. “Don’t believe in the surveys showing Arroyo leading over other candidates. We have good local surveys and the results were very different from the Arroyo surveys,” he said.
