Tindig Pilipinas endorses senatorial aspirants Alejano, Diokno, Tomawis

Cause-oriented group Tindig Pilipinas on Friday officially endorsed senatorial aspirants under the opposition slate, including Magdalo partylist Representative Gary Alejano, De La Salle University College of Law dean Jose Manuel “Chel” Diokno, and Marawi civic leader Samira Gutoc-Tomawis.

“We have chosen Samira “Sam” Gutoc-Tomawis, Jose “Chel” Diokno, and Gary Alejano after a long process of assessment and discernment. We have full faith in their probity,” Tindig Pilipinas said in a statement.

“They will fight for us. They will be our fighters against poverty, for social inclusion and for the nation’s sovereignty,” it added.

@TindigPH endorses senatorial aspirants Rep. @GaryAlejano, Marawi civic leader Samira Tomawis and lawyer Jose Manuel Diokno. @gmanews pic.twitter.com/L6gyPyPzM9

— ????Anna Felicia (@annafelicia_) October 12, 2018

The group emphasized that it is already “sick of patronage in politics.”

“We did not ask whether these candidates were famous, had the money to win, or the connections that would allow them to win at the game of patronage politics,” Tindig Pilipinas said.
“We have faith that a person can be elected based on their worth rather than on their wealth and connections.”

Alejano, a vocal critic of the Duterte administration, has repeatedly slammed the government and its supposed weak stance against the issue on the West Philippine Sea.

Women’s rights advocate Gutoc-Tomawis filed her Certificate of Candidacy (COC) on Thursday at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) headquarters in Manila. She was the first candidate from the Liberal Party to file a COC.

Gutoc-Tomawis stepped down from her post as a member of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission, when President Rodrigo Duterte issued Proclamation No. 216 on May 23, 2017, placing Mindanao under martial law after ISIS-inspired terrorists overran Marawi City.

Diokno, on the other hand, is the son of former Senator human rights lawyer Jose “Pepe” Diokno who was incarcerated by the Marcos regime during the dark days of martial law in the early 1970s.

The younger Diokno is an active member of the Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG), a group which assists victims of human rights violations and is co-founded Pepe Diokno. —VDS, GMA News