Don’t look down on ordinary people, Casiño tells Aquino

Bayan Muna party-list Representative Teddy Casiño. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Bayan Muna Partylist Representative Teddy Casiño, a leftist senatorial bet, on Tuesday blasted President Benigno Aquino III’s for belittling his survey standing.

Although the Makabayan bloc senatorial candidate was not named by the President, he told Radio New Zealand that although the leftist community was “very vocal…if the surveys are any indication, they have a senatorial candidate…and this person currently has 2.6 percent of the population voting for him.”

Aquino believes that the turnout was “very, very little” but Casiño urged the President not to make any hasty observations. “Let me remind the President that before his mother died, he did not even rate in any survey nor was considered by anyone to be of presidential calibre.”

The party-list legislator argued that Aquino “only became senator because of his lineage. So before he derides me or any candidate for the matter of rating low in the surveys, he should look at himself first.”

“Trust me, Mr. President, if I had Ninoy and Cory as parents, I’d probably be in your shoes too, except that I wouldn’t look down on ordinary mortals like me who have no political pedigree but who have every right to serve the country as congressman or, for that matter, senator of the Republic,” Casino said.