MANILA - Four senators widely expected to join the presidential race in 2010 welcomed on Wednesday the stated objective of the Moral Force Movement of helping voters choose the country’s new leaders.
The movement was initiated by Chief Justice Reynato Puno.
Senators Loren Legarda, Panfilo Lacson, Manuel Roxas II and Francis Escudero all agreed on the need for such a movement.
But Lacson said the Moral Force Movement should not only help people choose the right leaders but also "take the lead in educating the electorate to sidetrack personalities and shallow campaigning to win votes.''
"Issues and advocacies must be the main consideration during this critical time in our country's history and that the Moral Force must bear the burden of responsibility to inform our people that we cannot anymore afford another six years of transactional politics that breeds corruption in governance,'' he said in a text message.
Lacson was particularly concerned about the "D and E social classes'' who he said comprise most of the electorate but are the "most vulnerable to exploitation by scheming politicians.''
Legarda praised the composition of the eight-member core group of the movement, saying they were "well respected and accomplished individuals whose integrity and patriotism are unquestioned.''
"It is truly necessary that civic-spirited, intelligent and esteemed individuals should guide our people in the selection of officials who should be elected in the 2010 elections,'' she said in a statement.
"With our people desperately looking for a way out of their misery and poverty, we cannot afford to make a wrong turn as this could mean more social disorder and chaos from which there could be no turning back,'' Legarda said.
Escudero said Puno's group and "other similarly oriented groups'' were welcome to help "guide and enlighten our voters in the coming elections for all elective posts.''
"I firmly believe that we need more groups like this at the national and local levels,'' Escudero said in a text message.
For his part, Roxas hoped the movement would be "strong enough to resist and withstand partisan pressure'' in order "to reform our political system and fix it permanently."
"The launch of this new group convened by the Chief Justice has long been overdue, for it gives the public a fresh channel of robust discourse that can enlighten their choice in 2010,'' Roxas said.
He said he and the Liberal Party, of which he is president, are ready to "openly engage'' the group "in the moral dimension of our politics as well as in the overall social, economic and political agenda for the future.''
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