CAMPAIGN TRAIL

Malacañang on Tuesday said that President Benigno Aquino 3rd will continue his governance even if he will be campaigning for the administration’s senatorial candidates in next year’s midterm polls.

At a press briefing in Malacañang, Palace spokesman Edwin Lacierda said that the President is already looking forward to campaigning for the Liberal Party (LP) bets, however, this move would not be a problem.

Lacierda said that the President is devoted to governing, but he is also going to do some campaigning for senatorial candidates, which is also part of his work as the LP chairman.

“It’s the midterm elections but it does not take away the fact that the President is fully devoted to his job of governing the country. We have seen a tremendous increase in our performance in 2012 and we are not going to shortchange ourselves and the President is not going to do that. 2013 augurs well for the Philippines and certainly we hope, for instance, our investment upgrade this year—and also [that] the economy will also be going strong,” he said.

“We will let you know once you see his schedule going here, going there, and going everywhere. We will let you know. But, the President, he already said that part of his schedule running toward midyear—part of it will be campaigning for his senatoriables and for the LP candidates,” he added.

Lacierda also said that it is premature for some critics to speculate, saying that there’s a tendency for them to pigeonhole the President.

“The President has defied expectations. The President has done [that] which people never thought that he will be doing,” he added

Lacierda, meanwhile, declined to comment on reports that the candidates of the United Nationalist Alliance have started to campaign with sorties and TV advertisements.

He said that a Supreme Court decision has supposedly ruled that there is no such thing as premature campaigning.

“Under a Supreme Court decision, there is no premature campaigning. I forgot the name of the case [involving Rosalinda Panera] but it was written by [Associate] Justice [Antonio] Carpio, I think,” he said.

Earlier, Mr. Aquino said that he is already looking forward to campaigning for the administration’s senatorial candidates, saying that the election results would serve as a “referendum” of sorts on his governance style.

“So will I be campaigning? Yes. But I also have to run the country. So initially, I think, it will be office work and all the meetings in the morning, some campaigning in the afternoon, and refereeing at night. It will be a referendum on how we have governed for the past three years. By the time, it will be three years by the time there’s a decision [on the polls],” he said.

“We want to send a message that you cannot just mouth change as a slogan, but we want to say that there has been change brought in this country, [and that] the pace of the transformation of our society can be accelerated if we’ll get a team of fellow travelers who see the same vision as we do. That’s where we really picked our 12,” he added.