MalacaƱang yesterday renewed its call to the opposition and critics of President Duterte to accept defeat in the midterm polls, instead of questioning the credibility of the elections because their bet lost did not make it to the āMagic 12.ā
Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo made the statement after Bayan Secretary General Renato Reyes said that the āDuterte magicā was a form of systematic cheating and rigging of the elections.
Panelo said that the Palace expected the likes of Reyes to cry cheating and question the Duterte magic following the defeat of their senatorial candidate Neri Colmenares, along with many Left-leaning party-list groups in the polls.
According to Panelo, the people have already seen through the āsophistryā of espousing their feigned brand of nationalism for many decades, taking advantage of the poor manās plight.
āTheir loss is a clear indictment that our people do not believe in their advocacies, especially on the war on drugs, extra-judicial killings, South China Sea, one-man rule, etc., which they have foisted and peddled to the people,ā he said.
āOur peopleās rejection should have been a wake-up call to re-assess their actions. Unfortunately, Mr. Reyes ā
instead of throwing in the towel and yield to the resounding voice of the electorate ā opts to throw his false and malicious narratives at the Duterte administration,ā he added.
Panelo also said that Reyes should be āhumble enoughā to accept the electoral defeat, saying that their strategy to attack administration bets just triggered a backlash against opposition candidates.
āThey should have presented an alternative platform of governance and discussed how their brand of politics would be much better than the kind that the administration candidates would provide,ā he said.
He then urged the opposition, critics, and detractors of President Duterte to bow to the majesty of the rule of the majority, and reiterated the administrationās call to them to set aside partisanship and unite for the betterment of Filipinos. (Argyll Geducos)