INQUIRER.net Eleksyon 2007

Pichay: Constituency is my boss

INQUIRER.net

Maila Ager

MANILA, Philippines -- Senatorial candidate Prospero “Butch” Pichay said he would have been the head of the Department of National Defense had he lobbied for the position.

But at the same time, Pichay said he did not press for the defense portfolio because he was not used to having a boss.

“No, I never lobbied [for it]. If I did, I would have been the secretary of national defense,” Pichay told INQUIRER.net editors and reporters during an Eleksyon 2007 podcast interview.

“I was not interested in any position in the government because I m not used to having a boss and maybe it would be difficult fort me to work in a company where I have a boss. From the time I graduated po to the present I never had any boss,” he said.

Pichay said the only boss that he had recognized was his constituents in the first district of Surigao del Sur province, who had elected him for nine years to the House of Representatives.

After serving his three full terms in Congress, Pichay is now running for senator under the administration’s TEAM Unity ticket.

“They [constituents] were the ones who put me there and it was their voice that I brought with me to Congress,” he said.

“So I never lobbied for any position, otherwise, I would have been the secretary of national defense by now and that’s true. I can assure you, I would have been the secretary of national defense,” he stressed.

Pichay, a known friend of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s husband and First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo, also admitted owning two aircraft.

Pichay said he decided to run for the Senate instead of returning to private life where he could have made more money because he wanted to fulfill the dreams of Filipino people.

If elected in the Senate, Pichay, an advocate of Charter change, said he would be willing to sacrifice his post to pave the way for constitutional reforms.

“Well, if there will be no Charter change yes, yes I intend to serve the full term of six years. But if there will be Charter change, I will be more than willing to sacrifice,” he said.

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