Pacquiao: ‘Ayuda,’ Yes; ‘Hakot’ Crowd, No

Presidential candidate Sen. Manny Pacquiao said none of his supporters were paid to appear during his rallies and motorcades, and that attendees genuinely backed his campaign for the presidency.

Pacquiao made the statement on Saturday, Dec. 11, after presidential candidate Manila Mayor Isko Moreno accused a certain candidate of paying people to appear at rallies and motorcades to drum up a crowd as a show of political strength.

On Friday, Dec. 10, Moreno said he believes this candidate’s camp hands out at least P300 to P500 in cash to convince people to join rallies while attending motorcades was worth about P1,500.

Pacquiao said he does not feel alluded to by the allegation.

“That’s not us. Our camp does not pay our supporters, and I’m very happy because they give me all-out support and I see how they welcome me. They give me a very warm welcome in the places we go to and that’s not planting supporters; they are not paid,” Pacquiao said in Filipino.

“The people who come and scream and show their support (during my events) are not planted there. They willfully join to support me… We have not paid them just to join us and make our crowd look good,” he added.

The billionaire-senator, however, is known for handing out cash and food assistance to poor communities – an act that he believes is “different.”

He explained that he sees nothing wrong with giving out financial aid, which he has been doing long before he became a politician.

“Whatever we hand out, that’s a mere continuation of what I’ve been doing long before – the handing out of financial aid, the help we extend to citizens who are experiencing hardships. We will do this until the official campaign period starts. I have been doing this since 2002, and I intend to continue this until the Commission on Elections stops us, then we will comply. Helping others has been in my heart from the very start,” Pacquiao said.

“At least, in our case, the money we’re giving out to people are not stolen from government coffers. Filipinos very well know where my money come from. This is a part of the grace I received from God, and I am just sharing it to everybody,” he added.

The world boxing champion also expressed confidence that he would secure the votes of the people in Visayas and Mindanao because he is the only genuine Bisaya (Visayan native) among the presidential candidates.

Pacquiao, who was born in Bukidnon but grew up in General Santos City, is banking on his Visayan roots as his father is from Cebu while his mother Dionisia is from Sarangani, which is in Mindanao.

The senator, a former congressman of Sarangani, revealed his plan to do a weeklong sortie in the Davao region before going home to General Santos City to celebrate his 43rd birthday on Dec. 17.

Pacquiao is running for president under the banner of Cebu-based regional party PROMDI, which is allied with Pacquiao’s faction within the PDP-Laban.

For the past months, Pacquiao has been going around in the Visayas and Mindanao to share his vision to uplift the lives of poor Filipinos and his commitment to stop corruption in all levels of governance.

“I will just ask them how they are doing,” he replied to reporters when asked for confirmation of his plan to go around the Davao region, which is perceived as a bailiwick of the Dutertes.

Appeal on SIM card registration

Warning of a surge in text scams because of the elections, Pacquiao appealed to the Senate leadership to approve the mandatory registration of subscriber identification module (SIM) cards before Congress goes on a Christmas break.

The senator filed two years ago Senate Bill No. 388 or the proposed SIM Card Registration Act, which has been consolidated into SB 2395, hoping to stop the unrestricted utilization of cheap and disposable SIM cards in various swindling activities.

He said that with the approval by the House of Representatives of a counterpart bill, the Senate has until Dec. 18 to see its third and final reading approval so that it can be enacted into law before the start of the campaign period.

Pacquiao, who is often the subject of various text scams, said the passage of the measure “is very important, especially now that a lot of people are hoping for instant money due to financial hardships caused by the pandemic.”

“A lot of people fall victims to these text scams because of desperation. If we can approve this before the Christmas break and President Duterte signs it into law by January, we should be able to stop these text scams in time for the campaign period,” he said.

“Time is of the essence here. As long as no action is done on my proposal, I worry that there will be more victims of scammers who use mobile phones,” he added.

Pacquiao had earlier posted a video message on social media, and has created his own complaint hotline to inform the public about various text scams that use his name and his foundation.

The senator warned that swindling activities that use mobile phones are expected to increase because of the coming elections. He said scam syndicates could see this as an opportunity to namedrop politicians to solicit donations or victimize people using “you-win-a-cash” text scams.

In the bill, Pacquiao stressed that with the advent of the digital age, mobile phones have been one of the leading sources of communication in the Philippines due to their efficiency and convenience.

“Unfortunately, crimes have developed parallel to the improvement of technology,” he said in the bill.

The bill seeks the establishment of a system of sale and registration of SIM cards for all users by registering pertinent data in a registration form set up for the phones. Foreign nationals are also required to register their SIM cards. – With Paolo Romero