Miriam rallies youth to fight corruption

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — People’s Reform Party standard bearer Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago said she has been counting on the youth to fight graft and corruption, and to choose leaders with moral integrity in the May 9 elections.

“I want you, young people, to join the crusade against corruption,” Santiago said, as she addressed an estimated crowd of 4,000, composed mostly of college students from Bacolod City, at the University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos (UNO-R) gym last Friday.

Santiago urged the young voters not to vote corrupt officials, as they will just continue to steal public funds. Instead, voters should choose leaders with moral integrity, she added.

Santiago, who was joined by her lawyer husband Narciso, also claimed her opponents are devising a black propaganda against her, which is to put her in the lower ratings in the survey.

The feisty Ilongga senator is faring poorly in what she described as “commercial surveys” intended to turn off potential campaign contributors and force her out of the race.

Santiago said she finds it puzzling that while she is lagging behind other candidates in national surveys, she has consistently topped mock polls conducted in most colleges and universities across the country. “Binabayaran ang mga ito eh (They are being paid),” she had said of mainstream surveys in previous interviews.

Her speech was oftentimes punctuated with a chanting from the crowd: “Si Miriam ang sagot! Si Miram ang sagot!”

Santiago also shared to her Bacolod supporters that she was offered P350-million bribe to back our from her candidacy. “Can you imagine? Me, an Ilongga, being offered P350 million?”— she said in Hiligaynon.

A day ahead of her campus visit, her Negrense supporters organized a caravan around city proper of Bacolod City to campaign for Santiago and her running mate Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

About 30 vehicles paraded in the caravan organized by the People’s Reform Party/People’s Reform Coalition-Region 6. Attendees included Youth for Miriam 2016 Negros Occidental. (FREEMAN)