PRESS STATEMENT SENATOR M.A. MADRIGAL

Today, I filed my certificate of candidacy as an independent to seek the people's mandate for President of the Republic in the May 2010 elections.

I do this not out of personal ambition but out of the dictates of conscience. As history has proven again and again, the safe and easy way is not always the right way. I must do justice to the martyrdom of my grandfather, Jose Abad Santos.

I ran for the Senate in 2004 not for selfish reasons but because I wanted to prove that I could remain principled and untainted in the quagmire of traditional and patronage politics. While others voted out of convenience, I voted out of conviction.

Hindi ako kandidato ng malalaking negosyante o ng mga malalaking partido political. If elected, I shall favor only the Filipino people. To improve the people's lives, we must invest in them directly and not through intermediaries. Dapat bigyan puhunan ang bawa't Pilipino.

I shall run without a Vice-President and without a Senatorial slate to allow all like-minded candidates and people to unite under a shared and genuine progressive vision and platform of government, based on principled politics.

Panahon na para sa tunay na pagbabago at tunay na hustisya.

Panahon na para tapusin ang paghahari ng mga luma.