Filipino voters either have the power to lift the struggling Philippine economy or sink it deeper into uncertainty, said former Information and Communications Technology Secretary Eliseo Rio, Jr.
Due to this, he said it is important to take this 2022 elections seriously.
Rio expressed this observation prior to the recent press conference and manifesto signing of the “Generals for Ping,” led by former Antipolo Rep. Romeo Acop, to support the presidential candidate Senator Panfilo ‘Ping’ Lacson.
Lacson entered the 2022 presidential race with a mission to restore public trust in government through the elimination of corruption and by instituting budget reforms, which makes a lot of sense for the Philippines, now that it continues to grapple with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We think he (Lacson) is the best candidate that our country can have in this very trying time. This 2022 election is the most crucial in our history. The result of this election will determine—mark my words—whether our country will float or sink,” Rio said.
Because of this pandemic, Rio said our economy has fallen, a lot of people became unemployed) and things like that.
“So, we need a strong leader whose only focus is the development of our country,” he added.
Rio, who is also an electronics engineer, said he saw in Lacson the kind of leader, who is capable of bringing the country back on the track through judicious spending, especially after he exposed several anomalies in the past and even right in the middle of the pandemic.
“Ping Lacson was the one who discovered that the Sinovac (vaccines) we were purchasing were four times, five times more than the price of the same Sinovac that Indonesia bought. So, you see, even if we’re already in a crisis during the pandemic, there were people who thought about profiting from it,” he said.
Rio discouraged voters from believing the hype built around the current frontrunner in the 2022 presidential race.
The former DICT chief stressed the importance of choosing the “best candidate” not the “most popular” in these elections ‘to be able to have a country that we deserve’ and for the sake of the future generation of Filipinos as well.
