Best qualified potential candidate for president

I do not want to appear to be campaigning, but I cannot agree more with Ramon Farolan’s counsel not to forget former Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson (Opinion, 6/1/15). At the moment, it seems that all the issues point to Lacson as the possible presidential candidate come 2016 with the best qualification to be president of the Philippines.

Talk about Priority Development Assistance Fund, Lacson is the only Filipino elected to the Senate who did not touch his annual PDAF of P200 million for 12 years straight. That is a total of P2.4 billion (not just P1.2 billion as Farolan suggested; he must have computed the PDAF for only one term). I understand that Lacson wanted to devolve to municipalities and cities an average of P300 million annually to speed up development in the countryside.

Think about money laundering, and Lacson stands out as the principal author of the Anti-Money Laundering Act. Think about red tape in government, and Lacson shines as the principal author of the Anti-Red Tape Act.

Truly Lacson has the iron fist. He disciplined the police force, and trimmed the bodies of every pot-bellied policeman. He went after the “kotong” cops, presumably because his father was a garbage truck and passenger jeepney driver. He did not accept any reward money from the kidnapping-for-ransom victims he rescued. He has the political will and the leadership and the military training to deal with national security concerns such as the Mindanao conflict, the communist insurgency and the external threat arising in the West Philippine Sea.

The nation should now see him more in terms of tested and clean leadership, rather than hope for someone popular who could possibly do it yet.

Subok na si Lacson, bakit magbabasakali pa sa iba?

—MARIANO R. SANTIAGO, [email protected]