ShareThisAquino’s LP to field own bets; GMA allies joining coalition
By FRED GABOT and CLAIRE M. TRUE
MANILA – The next Philippine elections are one year away but the country’s major political parties have started flexing their muscles for the May 2013 senatorial, congressional and local elections.
Already, former Philippine President Joseph Ejercito Estrada and his Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) and incumbent Vice President Jejomar Binay and his Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) have banded together to form a coalition called the United Nationalist Alliance or UNA.
Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III said the “coalition agreement” between PMP and PDP-Laban had been signed and filed in the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in time for the deadline last March 31 for the registration of coalition parties.
The coalition is widely believed as a jumpstart Binay’s presidential run three years later. His election as vice president is still being contested by former Senator now Transportation Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II.
Allies of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo were welcomed to the coalition by Estrada who indicated UNA’s powerhouse senate slate may include former Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri and current House of Representatives assistant minority leader Mila Magsaysay.
Estrada said applicants to the UNA should have “no connection to whatever anomalies” during the nine-year rule of Arroyo as president.
Arroyo is now detained on electoral sabotage charges. She is also faces plunder and graft charges.
UNA’s senate slate will be led by two topnotchers of senatorial elections, Sens. Loren Legarda and Francis Escudero.
The senate slate of UNA is being prepared in view of the October 2012 deadline for the filing of certificates of candidacy.
This early, it is shaping up that UNA’s candidates will be pitted against the candidates of President Benigno S. Aquino III and his Liberal Party (LP).
Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile likened the imminent battle between the two groups as that of David and Goliath, UNA being David and Aquino and his LP and administration candidates as Goliath.
UNA is also reaching out with other parties, including Ambassador Edudardo “Danding” Cojuangco’s Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) and Sen. Edgardo Angara’s Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP), according to Binay spokesman Joey Salgado.
Sen. Manny Villar’s Nacionalista Party (NP) is also being courted with the inclusion of party stalwart Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano in the UNA senate slate and Sen. Legarda, Villar’s runningmate in the 2010 presidential elections.
LP spokesman Lorenzo Tanada III declared that the LP is not threatened with the coalition formed by the parties of Estrada and Binay.
Tanada said even LP can form its own coalition with other political parties “if the other political parties agree with the agenda of reform as espoused by PNoy.” It was gathered that LP is also courting Angara and his LDP and Danding Cojuangco’s NPC.
Aside from Legarda and Escudero, reelectionist Sens. Gregorio Honasan, Aquilino Pimentel III and Alan Peter Cayetano are also in the tentative UNA senatorial slate. Also mentioned as part of the slate are Joey de Venecia III, the son and namesake of the former speaker; Cagayan Rep. Juan Ponce Enrile Jr., son of the Senate president; former Sen. Jamby Madrigal, former Congresswoman Cynthia Villar, wife of Sen. Villar; former Sen. Ernesto Maceda, and Ma. Lourdes Nancy Binay, the eldest daughter of the Vice President; and San Juan Congressman Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito, son of the former President.
Congresswoman Magsaysay, a known ally of former President now Pampanga Congresswoman Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, said she was invited by Binay to become a member of UNA’s senatorial slate.
“I appreciate Vice President Binay’s faith in me, and his confidence in my potential in becoming a more effective leader on a national scale. I thank him for recognizing my consistent performance in my years in Congress, and what I could further contribute to the nation as a public servant,” she said.
In a statement, Magsaysaye lamented criticisms against UNA’s association with the former administration. She said detractors are just picking on scraps to dismiss the credentials of the UNA line-up.
“I have said time and again that government needs check and balance. When I see something wrong with policies, I am honest with it. Is that wrong? Check and balance is something the administration should well be familiar of since they claim to be public servants and stalwarts of the road to a straight path,” she added.
House of Representatives Minority Leader Danilo Suarez, Lakas-Kampi vice chairman, said he hoped to formalize a political tie-up with UNA for the local elections as well.