KIKO: INDEPENDENCE DAY SHOULD SIGNAL INDEPENDENT POLITICS; HONORS MODERN-DAY HEROES

Senate Majority Leader Kiko Pangilinan today challenged political leaders to give new meaning to Independence Day by ushering a new kind of politics that's grounded on principles and independence.

"When we decided to run an independent campaign this February we wanted to show that there is a new way of doing politics in this country, that there is an alternative to politics-as-usual. The 14 million Filipinos who voted for me agreed that one need not be under a certain personality or camp's grace to earn the trust of our people," Kiko said.

"Independence Day should signal a new kind of politics where leaders are able to decide objectively based on the people's needs and not on political alliance. We need politics of independence in order to offer our people more freedom—freedom from poverty, corruption, hunger, want. Our ancestors fought for the same issues more than a hundred years ago. Let us not allow fellow Filipinos to trample on our rights, our freedom. This can be done, if there is enough courage and conviction among our political leaders and if we seek to empower ourselves as a people to not allow even our very own government to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the countless human rights violations that have occurred in recent history. As we commemorate Independence Day, we remember and honor also the more recent heroes that have sacrificed life, comfort and security to continue the fight," Kiko ended.