Former senator and senatorial candidate Kiko Pangilinan issued a rallying call to his supporters in General Santos City on Saturday, May 3, during a campaign rally there as the days leading up to Election Day start to dwindle.


“GenSan, tulungan nyo akong ipanalo natin ang tama,” he said.


Pangilinan wrapped up his campaign sortie in Mindanao—traveling from Sultan Kudarat to Marawi City to Cotabato—in General Santos City, where he brought a fraction of Barangay Pangilinan—wife Megastar Sharon Cuneta-Pangilinan, nephew Donny Pangilinan, and brother and sister-in-law Anthony and Maricel Laxa-Pangilinan.


There, he asked his supporters not only to vote for him on May 12, but to continue to campaign for him in the last seven days of the campaign period.


“Tumatakbo (ako) para sa mga Pilipino na naniniwala na meron pang pagasa ang Pilipinas. Ako po ay tumitindig para sa mga magsasaka, mga mangingisda, para sa murang pagkain, para wala nang gutom, para ang taumbayan makikinabang ng husto. Tumatakbo para ipakita na maaring manalo ang lumalaban ng patas at hindi magnanakaw,” the former senator said.


Pangilinan, who was former food security secretary of the Aquino administration, shared about the importance of his Sagip Saka Act, a law that he principally authored and passed in 2019.


A fulfillment of his campaign promise back in 2016, the law allows the national and local governments to purchase directly from farmers and fisherfolk without public bidding and without the restrictions of the procurement law.


“Dahil kapag binigyan natin ng buo at todong suporta ang magsasaka, mangingisda, dadami ang kanilang ani, dadami ang kanilang huli, dadami na ang supply ng pagkain sa palengke at kapag madami ang supply, bababa na ang presyo ng pagkain,” he said.


“At kapag mababa na ang presyo ng pagkain lahat tayo makikinabang, lahat tayo makakabili ng masarap at masustansyang pagkain. Maihahanda na sa hapag kainan, marami nang handa at kapag marami nang handa, maraming Sharon. Kaya kapag may Kiko, may Sharon,” Pangilinan said, referring to the colloquial term for “take-home food.”


The former senator, who was endorsed by the United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP), the official political party of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), brought wife Sharon to Mindanao as per her wish.


In introducing her husband, the Megastar asked supporters not to merely believe in what she says, but to look at the “resibo (receipt)” of Pangilinan’s work as a public servant.


“Ito po ang paniwalaan nyo. Believe sa mga resibo. You research. He has passed more than 200 laws,” she said, describing the former senator as “good, competent, sincere, hardworking, very smart, God-fearing, walang unexplained wealth.”


“We have been married 29 years. I have been his girlfriend for 31. We have four kids. They are all good kids with good lives. Napakatinong tao. I know maybe only a few men who is as decent as my husband. Mabuting mabuting ama, kahit puyat, walang tulog, pagod, kapag may kailangan kami, andiyan sya. He’s always there for us,” Cuneta-Pangilinan added.


She also warned voters against those who use spliced and edited videos to spread disinformation about the former senator.


“Walang maipintas sa kanya. Hindi nila masabi nagnakaw, hindi nila masabi bobo… Pinipilit po nila na ilayo siya sa inyo. You are smart to know what is true and what is not… A vote for Kiko. That is a vote for your future,” she said.