Loren: 2004 poll outcome crucial to RP’s future

Senate Majority Leader Loren Legarda said yesterday the future of the nation hinges on the candidates Filipino voters will elect president and vice president in next year’s elections.

"We can move forward or backslide further depending on our choices," Legarda, who plans to run for vice president, told a group of college students.

She said the next president should have zero tolerance for graft and corruption, which makes the nation poorer by up to 50 percent.

"What we need is a leader who really understands the country’s problems, a leader who (will) put a stop to graft and corruption, which eats up half of government resources, depriving our people of vital resources," Legarda said.

She said the next president and vice president should have the political will to go after corrupt officials and private citizens corrupting public officers and employees.

Legarda noted that every administration that assumed office after the Marcos era promised to fight corruption in all levels of the bureaucracy.

But each of them failed and many officials in fact succumbed to the temptation of dipping their hands in the proverbial cookie jar, she said.

"Our future leaders should be strong enough to resist such temptation. They should set the example by living simple lives. They must be honest and transparent," she said.

She said simple living, honesty and transparency by high officials are noticed and followed down the line up to the lowly clerk or janitor, and by the people at large.

Legarda promised to reveal her political plans within the next two weeks.

She said she would like to contribute to a good, honest and transparent government by being part the executive branch.

There are several presidential hopefuls who are wooing Legarda as their vice presidential runningmate, but she has not made a decision yet. — Jess Diaz, Jose Rodel Clapano