Filipinos need the time-tested experience of UniTeam standard-bearers Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. and Sara Duterte to manage the country’s recovery from the pandemic, senatorial candidate Harry Roque said.
Roque, a UniTeam senatorial candidate, pointed out that both Marcos and Duterte enjoyed overwhelming mandates when they won in previous elections. They are also leading the surveys of likely winners of the May 2022 elections by various pollsters, he said.
Marcos served as a four-time provincial governor of Ilocos Norte, while Duterte was the incumbent and two-term Davao City mayor and vice-mayor for one term.
“To accelerate national recovery, we have to choose executive and legislative leaders that have earned the full trust of the majority if not supermajority of Filipinos,” Roque said.
Roque described Marcos as a face of unity in a country deeply divided by partisan politics and cited Duterte’s unifying leadership.
He said the Marcos-Duterte tandem of problem-solvers and UniTeam’s well-experienced senatorial candidates would collectively seek solutions to the economic and health insecurities posed by the pandemic.
“Our full-recovery efforts from the suffering, death, and joblessness caused by Covid-19 are herculean,” he said.
At the same time, Roque vowed to ensure the better implementation of the Universal Health Care law to safeguard and promote the public’s right to health should he get a Senate seat.
He said he would press to abolish the corrupt-ridden Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) and have it replaced by the National Health Service agency.
Meanwhile, Roque called on government critics-turned candidates in the May elections to stop their negative campaigning by politicizing the pandemic.
“Our government and other sectors are working non-stop to save lives and livelihoods that are continuously threatened by the pandemic,” said Roque, who was once part of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Covid-19 response.
Roque said the inter-agency task force and medical frontlines “do not deserve the nitpicking and holier-than-thou attitude of these candidates.”
He continued : “They should question a party mate of theirs as to why the issue of PhilHealth corruption came to public knowledge while said candidate sat in the agency’s Board of Trustees.”
Roque advised rival candidates to present their political platforms, especially public health, and allow the electorate to make the final judgment in the May elections.
