Manila Mayor Francisco Domagoso, Senator Panfilo Lacson and former Secretary of Defense Norberto Gonzales, in a joint news conference on Sunday, vowed to fight together “any attempt to overthrow the true will of the people by way their choices “. . “Each of us will continue with our respective presidential campaigns and will try to be worthy of the choices from which our people will choose,” they said in a joint statement. Pacquiao, who was initially expected to attend the press conference but did not appear, also “will never retire despite the black propaganda started by other candidates,” according to his spokesman. All four are behind in the polls ahead of the May 9 election, while Marcos – the son and namesake of the late dictator – has maintained a clear lead, with Vice President Leni Robredo far behind in second place. “There have been many attempts to limit the electorate to two (Marcos and Robredo). That is why we had to do this (joint press conference),” Laxon said, without specifying who made such moves. Domagoso went so far as to call Robredo, the only female candidate, to make a “supreme sacrifice” and withdraw from the race to beat Marcos. “I call on Lenny to retire. Whatever you do is not effective against the Marcos,” said Domagoso, a former actor best known by his stage name Isco Moreno. Laxon said he was not the only one to make those who felt withdrawn from the fight “‘s in exchange for financial and other reasons.” But Robredo’s camp rejected calls for him to retire. “In the three weeks leading up to election day, we are in a period of great momentum for our people’s campaign,” spokeswoman Barry Gutierrez said in a statement. (Report by Enrico Dela Cruz · Edited by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
