BONGBONG MARCOS THANKS DETRACTORS FOR NON-STOP ATTENTION TO HIS VP BID

Vice presidential Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" R. Marcos Jr. today thanked his detractors for giving him non-stop attention in his VP bid saying it had brought him more supporters.

In an ambush interview after meeting with political leaders in Quezon City, Marcos, who is leading the surveys in the VP race, shrugged off the latest attack against him as just part of politics.

"Napakalaki ng atensyon sa akin (at) salamat naman sa walang tigil na pagpansin sa aking kandidatura. Pero part yan ng politika, (at) sa mga nangyayari sa akin ang supporter ko ang dumadami, hindi yung bumabatikos," he said.

He expressed wonder why some people seemed to be afraid of him when he had not attacked anyone. "Yun na nga pinagtataka ko e bakit natatakot sila sa akin e ang bait-bait ko naman. Nananahimik lang naman ako," he quipped.

But the senator said he expected that more attacks will be thrown at him in the remaining weeks leading to the May 9 elections especially that the criticisms appear to be coming from the President himself. He stressed that the President for the past several weeks have led the attacks against his VP bid.

"Maliwanag naman yan, siguro galing sa pangulo pa yan kasi ang pangulo naman ang nangunguna sa pagbabatikos sa akin kaya hindi naman nakakapagtaka na sa kanya galing yan. Hindi kami magkasama, hindi magka-alyado kaya ini-expect natin na sa darating na ilang linggo dadami pa yan," he said.

But he pointed out that despite the attacks, he will continue to stick to his campaign and will not be goaded to engage in mudslinging as he expressed the belief that a candidate's platform is what is important to the Filipino people.

"Hindi na ako nakikisali sa pamumulitika, sa paninira at sinasagot ko na lang ay ang mga tanong ng tao kung paano ko mapapabuti ang buhay nila at maipaliwanag ang aking programa para sa pamahalaan. Ipagpapatuloy lang natin ang pagbigkas ng mensahe ng pagkakaisa at programa na palagay ko ay mas mahalaga sa taong-bayan kaysa itong pamumulitika," he said.