Inquirer Visayas
First Posted 05:46:00 11/02/2009
Filed Under: Inquirer Politics, Eleksyon 2010, Elections
TACLOBAN CITY—Eastern Samar Gov. Ben Evardone, a staunch ally of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and a key leader of the ruling Lakas-Kampi-CMD, has admitted the possibility of the administration party disintegrating before the 2010 elections because of infighting and defections by its members to other parties.Evardone on Saturday said this scenario could affect the chances of the party’s presidential standard-bearer, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, in the May elections.
Lakas-Kampi had already lost a key ally in Eastern Visayas when Biliran Gov. Rogelio Espina bolted the party on Oct. 21 to join the Nacionalista Party headed by Sen. Manny Villar.
Espina has urged other officials of the region to join him in the NP.
He has announced his intention to run for the lone congressional seat of Biliran against neophyte Rep. Glenn Chong, a member of the Liberal Party who will be seeking his second term in 2010.
Last month, Camarines Sur Gov. Luis Raymund “LRay” Villafuerte Jr. turned his back on Lakas-Kampi, which he had belonged to since being elected in 2004.
Villafuerte, the regional chair of Lakas in Bicol, has also joined the NP.
Aside from Villafuerte, the heads of the League of Municipalities, Vice Mayors’ League, Councilors’ League and Association of Barangay Captains in Camarines Sur have also joined the NP.
Earlier, Davao del Sur Gov. Douglas Cagas and 57 others bolted Lakas-Kampi to join the NP.
Cagas, also a close ally of President Arroyo, is considered to be one of the more influential politicians in Southern Mindanao.
Among those who joined Cagas in the NP were six mayors, five vice mayors, three board members and 42 councilors.
Evardone said the possible root cause of the collapse of the ruling party could be disagreements over who among the candidates of the administration would get the official nomination.
Lakas-Kampi resulted from the merger of the leading political parties, both of them allied with President Arroyo.
“If, for example, I will not get the official nomination from our party, what could be my recourse but to leave the party and join another political party,” Evardone said.
This situation, he said, is not only present in his province but in other provinces where allies of the administration are running for the same posts.
Evardone, who is serving his second term as governor of Eastern Samar, has declared his intention to run for Congress representing the province’s lone congressional district.
The incumbent congressman, Teodulo Coquilla, who is on his first term, is also with Lakas-Kampi-CMD.
The regional president of the ruling party, Marcelino Libanan, is rumored to also be interested in regaining the Eastern Samar congressional seat he held for nine years, ending in 2004.
Libanan is currently the commissioner of immigration.
Evardone admitted receiving offers from other parties, the NP in particular, to join them but said he remained noncommittal as his loyalty was to the administration party.
The governor counts on at least 16 of the 23 mayors of the province as his allies.
Source: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20091102-233526/Arroyo-ally-sees-ruling-party-breakup
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