Miriam says she received P300M offer to quit presidential race

LOS BAÑOS, Laguna — Presidential aspirant Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago said she has received feelers to back out from the presidential race and was offered up to P300 million to reimburse her campaign expenses.

“There are many of them but they don’t speak to me but to my husband,” she told reporters in Filipino yesterday on the sidelines of her campus tour at the University of the Philippines (UP) here.

The feisty senator, who had been appearing in public more frequently after taking a short break from her anticancer treatment, lamented her consistent bottom ranking in commercial surveys.

“If we would follow what the survey firms say, they will be the ones to choose our next leaders. Our right to vote will be forfeited in their favor. They would become the kingmaker. That would not be appropriate,” she added in her 10-minute speech delivered at Baker Hall to an audience of mostly students and faculty.

Because of her poor standing in surveys, Santiago said this could have prevented contributors for her campaign.

“I’m in a difficult situation, they are making my survey standing low to prevent contributors for my campaign. If there are no contributors, there would be no funding. Because I have no funding, they are insisting that I withdraw and they would give me up to P300 million to reimburse my campaign expenses. I’m from UP.

What would I do with that money? I would grow old even before I’m done counting it,” she said.

In the latest Pulse Asia survey conducted from April 16 to 20, Santiago’s rating dropped from three percent to two percent.

“Every time mag-survey sila dahil bayaran ‘tong mga ‘to, lagi akong nasa ilalim. Di bale dahil late ako nagkampanya o dahil may sakit ako. Pero bakit sa lahat ng pamantasan sa ating bansa, saan man mapunta lalo na sa UP campuses, bakit palagi akong number one?” she said.