Erap sets prexy bid in motion

By Angie Rosales and Gerry Baldo
10/19/2009


Barring unforeseen hitches, former President Joseph Ejercito Estrada is set to announce on Wednesday his bid to win back in next year’s polls the presidency that he lost in 2001 to a civilian-backed military revolt.

Estrada, according to Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, will make his announcement in the poor district of Tondo, Manila where the former President will also introduce to his supporters his running mate as well as the senatorial bets

of the Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP).

“It will serve as a proclamation rally for the party,” Enrile told radio station dwIZ in an interview over the weekend.

This developed as a lawmaker and a peasant organization asked Sen. Benigno Simeon “Noynoy” Aquino, another presidential hopeful, to intervene in a dispute involving the Hacienda Luisita owned by the family of the senator’s mother, the late president Corazon Cojuangco-Aquino.

The Cojuangco family was said to have notified the Luisita farmers to discontinue using, cultivating and planting the sugarland starting Nov. 1, 2009. The notice, contained in a Dec. 18, 2008 memoranduum issued by Hernan Gregorio Jr., a Luisita management official, is now the subject of complaint by Luisita farmers who have repeatedly demanded that the sugarland be distributed to them under the comprehensive agrarian reform program.

In Tondo where Estrada is expected to announce his presidential bid, the PMP will also introduce Makati City Mayor Jejomar “Jojo” Binay as Estrada’s running mate.

The PMP senatorial lineup includes Enrile and Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada, who both belong to PMP, and guest candidates Ilocos Norte Rep. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., detained Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim, Grace Poe-Lamanzares, Jose de Venecia III and Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago. Poe-Lamanzares is the daughter of the late actor Fernando Poe Jr. who ran and lost in the 2004 presidential elections.

Santiago, Marcos and De Venecia are also included in the senatorial ticket of another presidentiable, Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. of Nacionalista Party. Lim and Poe might be “adopted” by Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero, also a presidential hopeful carrying the banner of the Nationalist People’s Coalition.

“It’s almost complete, the senatorial slate, except for one slot,” said Enrile.

As this developed, talks on alleged eventual defection of Sen. Loren Legarda to the administration camp intensified following reports on her alleged meeting with Defense Sec. Gilbert Teodoro, said to be Palace’ bet in the presidential race, sometime late last week.

“Their meeting pushed though,” sources said. They refused to divulged how the discussion ended.

The lady senator first ran and won in the senatorial elections in 1995 while she was still a member of Lakas-NUCD of former Pres. Fidel Ramos.

Meanwhile, Anakpawis party-list Rep. Rafael Mariano said the Cojuangcos should immediately withdraw the order the Luisita management issued last year to avert violence.

“There are only 12 days left before the Luisita management’s October 30, 2009 ultimatum to Luisita farmers,” Mariano explained.

Mariano said the memorandum was “arbitrary and illegal” even as he asked the Cojuangco family to “respect the rights of Luisita farmers to cultivate and own the lands.”

Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas deputy secretary general Randall Echanis challenged Sen. Aquino to immediately intervene “to avert another man-made disaster against Luisita farmers and farm workers.”

Echanis said that “the situation inside the Hacienda today is reminiscent of the weeks and days before the farm strike and massacre that happened five years ago.”


Source: http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/20091019hed6.html