Tiangco blames Sara impeachment for dismal Alyansa poll numbers

The campaign manager of the administration-backed Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas yesterday blamed the initiators of the impeachment complaint against Vice President Sara Duterte for the poor showing of the alliance's senatorial candidates in Mindanao.

- By JOSE RODEL CLAPANO

Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco explained that the sense of Mindanao voters changed after Vice President Duterte was impeached by the House of Representatives and the impeachment was filed in the Senate for trial.

"We know what happened in Mindanao. This all started when the impeachment was filed. Before the elections, we commissioned a survey, in November, December and we have tracked Mindanao," Tiangco said over dzBB.

"I have seen it clearly. If in the past, our candidates were getting votes from Mindanao, now no more. In the past, they chose candidates that they liked. Now, it changed. Their choice of candidates was whoever would not vote in favor of the impeachment," Tiangco said.

"The loss of the Alyansa senatorial candidates is self-inflicted. It should not have happened," he said, emphasizing that the initiators of the impeachment against Duterte should blame themselves and should not use him as a scapegoat.

"Why would they blame something on me, something of their own doing? I know who are the people pinning the blame on me. They are those who persistently initiated the filing of the impeachment against the Vice President. Why did they push for the impeachment, in the first place? When they know that nothing will happen to that because the Senate will tackle it only on June 2," Tiangco asked.