Sara: Hugpong bets satisfy Pinoy’s preference for candidates unlikely to be corrupt

ISABELA, Negros Occidental —The candidates endorsed by Sara Duterte's Hugpong ng Pagbabago all fall into the characteristic that a good number of Filipino voters would want from their senatorial bets, that of being invulnerable to corruption, President Rodrigo Duterte's daughter said on Monday.

Sara, the campaign manager Hugpong's 13 senatorial candidates, was reacting to the results of the Social Weather Stations poll which showed 25 percent wanted a candidate who would not be corrupt.

The same poll also revealed that 22 percent said they were looking for candidates who helped or had concern for the poor while 21 percent of respondents wanted the following traits: trustworthy; being honest and faithful; good personal characteristics; being good; generous; fair and responsible.

“Yes," Sara said when asked if the members of the Hugpong slate were unlikely to be corrupt.

"Wala naman sa kanila ang convicted of plunder and other corruption laws,” she told reporters.

Sara said the results of the latest SWS poll proved her point that honesty was not an issue.

“‘Yan ang sinasabi ko. Dapat ang voter ang nagsasabi kung ano ang hinahanap niya sa kandidato beyond the legal requirements,” Sara said.

“Kasi iba-iba tayo ng perception, iba-iba tayo ng gusto eh. That is what I said about honesty. It is not an issue because it is not a requirement to run [for office],” she added.

Former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales has said that the Constitution required honesty from public officials, calling the mandate "a matter of oath derived from legal sources, not a matter of option driven by market forces."

"The State shall maintain honesty and integrity in the public service,” Morales said, quoting the 1986 Constitution. "Upholding the Constitution is part of every public officer’s oath of office."

Morales is an aunt of Sara's husband Attorney Mans Carpio.

Sara to drive home her point invoked Article 6, Section 3 of the 1987 Constitution as regards the requirements for senators: “No person shall be a Senator unless he is a natural-born citizen of the Philippines, and, on the day of the election, is at least thirty-five years of age, able to read and write, a registered voter, and a resident of the Philippines for not less than two years immediately preceding the day of the election."

Hugpong’s Senate bets include: Sen. Sonny Angara, Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, Sen. Pia Cayetano, Sen. Cynthia Villar, Sen. JV Ejercito, former Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla, Jr., former Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos, Maguindanao Representative Dong Mangudadatu, former Philippine National Police chief Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, former Special Assistant to the President Christopher “Bong” Go, former Presidential Adviser on Political Affairs Francis Tolentino and former journalist Jiggy Manicad.

In December 2018, Revilla was acquitted of the P224 million plunder charges in connection with P10 billion pork barrel scam wherein the lawmakers’ discretionary fund were funneled to bogus nongovernment organizations.

Estrada, on the other hand, still has a pending P183 million plunder charge also in connection with the P10 billion pork barrel scam.

In 1995, the US Federal Court in Hawaii awarded $1.964 billion worth of ill-gotten assets of the Marcos family to the victims of the human rights violations during 20-year dictatorship of former President Ferdinand Marcos, Imee’s father.

A 2003 Philippine Supreme Court decision also ruled that the 10,000 claimants in the Hawaii case were entitled to compensation from the $10 billion Swiss bank deposits of the Marcoses which has been deemed ill-gotten by the High Court in the same ruling. —NB, GMA News