I will finish this race! —Miriam

A few hours left before the official closing of the campaign period for the May 9 elections, Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago maintained that she will not back out from the presidential race.

"I have said it before, and I will say it again: I will never quit, I will never stop, I will never withdraw," Santiago said in a statement issued to reporters a few minutes before her expected arrival at Brgy. West Triangle, Quezon City.

Santiago and her running mate, vice presidential candidate Sen. Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., are set to join about a hundred members of the Youth for Miriam Movement converged at West 4th Street in Barangay West Triangle, for a street party dubbed as "Miriam Redvolution: A Rave to Reform."

Dressed in red T-shirts with printed face of Santiago, the youth supporters started the street party with flash mobs and witty chantings of "Si Miriam ang sagot!", "Batas hindi dahas!", "Only Miriam, only Miriam!", "Aangat tayo kay Miriam Defensor-Santiago!", "Miriam supporters, hindi kami bayad!" among others.

Santiago, in her statement, said she owe it to the Filipino people who believe in her, to finish the race.

"I owe it to the Filipino people who believe in my leadership and who yearn for long-overdue reforms," Santiago said.

Santiago's statement came amid rumors that she will back down from the race at the last minute to support another candidate.

Santiago had earlier revealed that a certain group offered her around P350 million to withdraw from the race and endorse another presidential candidate.

Santiago's statement also came at the heels of the call of President Benigno Aquino III for presidential rivals to unite against a looming dictatorship of the leading candidate, apparently referring to Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte who has been topping the recent pre-election surveys.

Santiago, meanwhile, again hit the private research firms over their alleged questionable pre-election surveys.

"These commercial surveys are mind conditioning tools. The goal is to discourage contributors, effectively depriving me of campaign funds," Santiago said.

Santiago had been consistently lagging in pre-election surveys of research firms Social Weather Stations (SWS) and Pulse Asia.

Santiago, however, has been questioning the credibility of the two pollsters’ commissioned surveys, claiming irregularity in their methods, particularly the exclusion of her name in some of the survey questionnaires.

Unlike her four fellow presidential candidates, Santiago opted to attend the street party of her youth volunteers instead of holding a grander miting de avance.

Her media relations officer Arveen Patria said this is to show that Santiago is giving primacy to the power of the youth vote to change the tides of the elections. —ALG, GMA News