The Aksyon Demokratiko party claimed reports of former supporters allegedly abandoning its standard bearer, Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso, are a “sinister ploy”.
Party chair Ernest Ramel identified the reports of volunteers and party members defecting to Vice President Leni Robredo as fake news, urging to halt the spread of ‘disinformation’.
“We see no end to these diabolical machinations aimed at weakening the political party of Mayor Isko,” Ramel said in a statement. “Enough with the disinformation. Let’s put a stop to a rehash of defections which is already tantamount to fake news.”
This, following Domagoso’s controversial call for Robredo’s withdrawal from the presidential race during the joint Manila Peninsula press conference on Easter Sunday alongside fellow presidentiables Senator Panfilo Lacson and former Defense secretary Norberto Gonzales.
Lacson and Gonzles have since distanced themselves from Domagoso’s comments, clarifying that they are not asking for Robredo’s withdrawal.
On Monday, Domagoso said the comment was a “taste of [Robredo’s] own medicine” as her camp was allegedly persistent in asking him to step down since last year.
In an undated statement, former officials and members of Aksyon Demokratiko expressed their disappointment at Domagoso’s remarks against Robredo and proclaimed Robredo as their preferred presidential bet.
The letter posted on social media was signed by various former Aksyon Demokratiko party members and former Isko Tayo Kabataan members.
In the letter, the group stated “It was clear that Moreno saw the press conference as an opportunity to retaliate against initial calls by Robredo’s supporters for him to withdraw, which he refers to as a social injustice. But the good mayor from Manila should be reminded that Robredo herself never made that appeal”.
Ramel said that it is obvious that the people behind the previous defection of IM (Isko Moreno) volunteers are the same ones behind the recruitment of the Aksyon Demokratiko youth members and volunteers.
Ramel added that he does not personally know some of the alleged Aksyon Demokratiko volunteers who defected to the Robredo camp.