Vice President Leni Robredo denied affiliation with the new cause-oriented group Tindig Pilipinas despite appearing on a mass prepared by the group.
“I am not part of Tindig Pilipinas. I was invited with some other anti-Martial Law members. The mass is important because it commemorates the longtime of fighting,” Robredo said in Filipino.
The vice president with former President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, former Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, and other Liberal Party members attended the mass offered by Tindig Pilipinas for martial law and extrajudicial killings victims on the 45th anniversary of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ declaration of Martial Law across the Philippines in 1972.
“We should reassure that the lessons we had learned during Martial Law will still serve as lessons today so that there will be no repeat of darkness in our country during that time,” Robredo added in Filipino.
Robredo also stressed that groups like Tindig Pilipinas should be “organic” and should not be linked to conventional politicians.
“From the time politicians dip their fingers and mingle with groups like that, it will always raise doubts if what really the intentions are. It will lose the real issue or the contentions of what is the interest of the public of why they joined the group,” the vice president added.
Tindig Piliipinas is an alliance of unions and citizens who are alarmed and worried by supposed extrajudicial killings as an outcome of the bloody war on drugs launched by President Rodrigo Duterte.
The group’s launch on September 18 was attended by members of the Senate and House of Representatives minority blocs such as Sen. Francis Pangilinan, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV and Sen. Risa Hontiveros and Magdalo party-list Rep. Gray Alejano.
Former Aquino administration Cabinet members including former spokesperson Edwin Lacierda, former peace adviser Teresita Deles and former Education secretary Bro. Armin Luistro were also present in the event.
It can be remembered that the group asked Duterte to attest his honesty and integrity by signing a waiver for his bank accounts and called on the president to resign if he won’t sign.