MANILA – Sen. Sonny Angara has secured another crucial backing for his Senate reelection bid, this time from Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon who hails from the vote-rich Iloilo province.
Drilon’s endorsement through a video message released recently completes the support of the entire Senate leadership for Angara’s run for another full six-year term in the Senate in the May 13 midterm elections.
“Suportahan natin si Senator Sonny Angara. Maaasahan, masipag, mabait. Kailangan natin sa Senado, Sonny Angara. Numero otso sa balota para sa Alangang Angara,” Drilon said in Hiligaynon.
Drilon, the Senate President in the 16th Congress, topped the 2016 senatorial polls with 18.6 million votes.
Drilon’s announcement completes the endorsement of Angara by the entire Senate leadership, as Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto and Majority Leader Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri have also expressed their vocal support for the candidacy of Angara.
Senators Loren Legarda, Joel Villanueva, Sherwin Gatchalian and Panfilo Lacson have also closed ranks to push the reelection bid of the lawmaker from Aurora province, who is running under the platform “Alagang Angara.”
Angara, one of the leading senatorial candidates based on various independent pre-election surveys, has earned the endorsements of several political leaders and recently, the influential Iglesia ni Cristo and El Shadddai.
Angara’s candidacy is also backed by several organizations, cause-oriented groups, political parties such as One Batangas; Confederation of Sugar Producers Associations Inc.; Filipinos for Peace, Justice and Progress Movement (FPJPM); Coalition of the Elderly Inc.; Alyansa ng May Kapansanang Pinoy (AKAP-Pinoy); Tahanang Walang Hagdan Inc.; Philippine Paralympic Committee; Coop-NATCCO Party-list; health advocacy groups PGH Cancer Survivors Organization (PCSORG), the Ostomy Association of the Philippines (OAP), and breast cancer survivors’ group KaBoobs; Davao-based District III Women Federation Inc.; and the seafarers’ ANGKLA party-list group.
He is also being endorsed by Hugpong ng Pagbabago (HnP), the influential regional political party led by presidential daughter and Davao City’s Mayor Sara Duterte, and President Duterte’s PDP-Laban.
Angara chairs the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino, the political party once led by his father who was behind landmark legislations that created the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), the Free College High School Act, the Senior Citizens Act, and the National Health Insurance Act that created the PhilHealth.
Since becoming a legislator in 2004, first as representative of the lone district of Aurora and later as senator in 2013, the younger Angara authored and sponsored more than 180 national and local laws, and vowed to continue his legislative agenda of helping every member of the Filipino family if voters return him to the Senate.
Among his notable legislation are the free kindergarten and college laws; VAT-exemption for senior citizens and persons with disability; free medical check-up, laboratory tests and some medicines under PhilHealth; year-round student fare discount; establishment of the Expanded Public Employment Service Office (PESO) in every local government unit to assist people seeking employment; tax exemption of “balikbayan” boxes of overseas Filipino workers; and the scrapping of the 12-percent VAT on maintenance medicines for diabetes, hypertension and high cholesterol./PN
