News Roundup 13 March 2022
Mar 13, 2022 • 4 min Read
Momentum building for Robredo’s campaign | PHILSTAR.COM – With less than two months before the elections, Vice President Leni Robredo is banking on the groundswell of volunteers and supporters to help her win the presidency. Just hours after addressing thousands of supporters in Bacolod City on Friday night, Robredo was already in Cagayan to start a day of campaigning in the known bailiwick of rival Ferdinand Marcos Jr. During her first stop in Tuguegarao City, the Vice President expressed gratitude to those who had the courage to campaign for her despite the north’s known ties with her main rival. In one speech, Robredo admitted getting nervous ahead of her visit, saying she was wondering if people would go out to meet her following the huge turnout in Negros Occidental the day before. The response from her supporters was clear. There is no “Solid North,” they said, a reference to the supposed voting bloc of the northern provinces for the Marcoses. And while enthusiasm is clear among Robredo’s supporters, the Vice President herself recognized the challenge ahead in convincing voters in her rival’s bailiwick to back her presidential bid. In the 2016 vice presidential race, Robredo lost by a large margin in most provinces in Northern Luzon. Only a handful of local politicians have publicly endorsed her bid, most notably Mayor Tin Antonio of Alcala, Cagayan, where a campaign sortie was held. In her introduction of the Vice President, Antonio recalled how Robredo helped the province during the onslaught of Typhoon Ulysses. Tuguegarao City councilor Marj Martin-Chan noted how Robredo responded to pleas for help in the middle of the night and immediately provided assistance for those affected by the typhoon, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic. From Alcala, the Vice President traveled to Isabela, where a rally was held in Echague. In an earlier interview, she expressed her excitement to meet with supporters in the two provinces, noting how they braved the jeers and threats that they received for supporting her.
Over 1,300 UP College of Law students, alumni back Robredo for president | INQUIRER.NET –More than 1,300 students and alumni of the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Law endorsed the presidential candidacy of Vice President Leni Robredo on Sunday. The 1,308 signatories said this in a statement after stressing the importance of the 2022 elections, at a point where “we are experiencing a crisis of values,” adding that the country cannot afford to elect the wrong leader in the said elections. “Our failure to make the right choices in the May 2022 elections would mean more suffering for the Filipino people, more oppression and more injustice,” the signatories said. “Among the candidates for the May 2022 elections, we believe that the right person for the Presidency is Leni Robredo,” they added. According to the students and alumni, Robredo has shown “compassion, integrity, competence, patriotism and vision to steer our country out of various crises.” “Leni Robredo provides leadership from the front. This is what we need to climb out of our present predicament. To rebuild our economy, to rework our justice system, to preserve our national patrimony, we need a Leader who inspires. Leni Robredo is that leader,” they further stressed. The UP Law students and alumni then decried the Marcoses’ potential return to the higher office, adding that to elect former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. “eviscerates the Rule of Law we have labored so hard to rebuild.”
SC mourns passing of retired Justice Nachura | Manila Bulletin – The Supreme Court (SC) announced the passing today, March 13, of retired Associate Justice Antonio Eduardo B. Nachura. Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo said the SC and the entire judiciary “offer our sincere and deep condolences and prayers.” “Justice Nachura will always be remembered as one of those few who served in the highest levels of all three branches of the government,” Gesmundo said. Justice Nachura served at the SC from 2007 to 2011; as undersecretary of the then Department of Education, Culture and Sports, now Department of Education and solicitor general; and a two-term member of the House of Representatives where he was chairperson of the Committee on Higher and Technical Education. During his SC stint, Justice Nachura disposed of about 1,690 cases and wrote 640 full length decisions and resolutions, the SC’s public information office (PIO) said. He served as chairperson of the SC’s committee on Legal Education and Bar Matters, the Sub-Committee on the Revision of the Rules on Special Proceedings, the Sub-Committee on the Internal Rules, and the 2009 bar examinations. He finished his law degree at the then San Beda College and garnered seventh place in the 1967 bar examinations.
