By Christina Mendez (The Philippine Star)
Link: http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=566617&publicationSubCategoryId=63
MANILA, Philippines - Re-electionist Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago has called for an end to the mudslinging between the Nacionalista Party (NP) and the Liberal Party (LP), whose two presidential aspirants, senators Manuel Villar Jr. and Benigno Aquino III, have been swapping charges over Villar’s origins as a poor boy and Aquino’s mental health.
“I am calling for a halt to all these mudslinging. Some people are already commenting that this has become the dirtiest campaign in recent history and I join that view,” Santiago said after delivering a speech at the NP rally in Valenzuela last Tuesday evening.
“Can we please discuss issues here? In Politics 101, we are all taught that we must discuss fully every issue… but never dealing with personalities like where Villar really lived exactly in Tondo because he might have been living in a rich man’s enclave in Tondo,” said the feisty senator, who is seeking re-election as guest candidate of the NP, Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino and the administration’s Lakas-Kampi.
Santiago noted that Tondo in Manila was a “generic name for poverty” as she also questioned the brouhaha on why Villar’s brother, Danny, was brought to an expensive hospital.
“There are no clean hands here so I appeal to them to stop this. It’s not illuminating to the Filipino public. This for me is gutter politics, I wish everyone would just stop,” she added.
In an interview with reporters, she also questioned the motives of some quarters to highlight Aquino’s state of mind and demand a psychiatric exam.
“My answer to that is, it is too late in the day to ask for that exam because if that’s a legitimate claim, it could have been made at the onset of the campaign,” Santiago said.
She said there is no provision in the Constitution that requires any candidate to take a psychiatric exam.
“I don’t think there is any report that Mr. Aquino did anything irregular or abnormal in the course of the campaign, so I don’t see a reason except sheer malice,” she said in defense of Aquino.
Link: http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=566617&publicationSubCategoryId=63
MANILA, Philippines - Re-electionist Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago has called for an end to the mudslinging between the Nacionalista Party (NP) and the Liberal Party (LP), whose two presidential aspirants, senators Manuel Villar Jr. and Benigno Aquino III, have been swapping charges over Villar’s origins as a poor boy and Aquino’s mental health.
“I am calling for a halt to all these mudslinging. Some people are already commenting that this has become the dirtiest campaign in recent history and I join that view,” Santiago said after delivering a speech at the NP rally in Valenzuela last Tuesday evening.
“Can we please discuss issues here? In Politics 101, we are all taught that we must discuss fully every issue… but never dealing with personalities like where Villar really lived exactly in Tondo because he might have been living in a rich man’s enclave in Tondo,” said the feisty senator, who is seeking re-election as guest candidate of the NP, Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino and the administration’s Lakas-Kampi.
Santiago noted that Tondo in Manila was a “generic name for poverty” as she also questioned the brouhaha on why Villar’s brother, Danny, was brought to an expensive hospital.
“There are no clean hands here so I appeal to them to stop this. It’s not illuminating to the Filipino public. This for me is gutter politics, I wish everyone would just stop,” she added.
In an interview with reporters, she also questioned the motives of some quarters to highlight Aquino’s state of mind and demand a psychiatric exam.
“My answer to that is, it is too late in the day to ask for that exam because if that’s a legitimate claim, it could have been made at the onset of the campaign,” Santiago said.
She said there is no provision in the Constitution that requires any candidate to take a psychiatric exam.
“I don’t think there is any report that Mr. Aquino did anything irregular or abnormal in the course of the campaign, so I don’t see a reason except sheer malice,” she said in defense of Aquino.
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