The United Opposition (UNO) tandem of former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada and Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay is unfazed by the prospect of going against moneyed candidates in the 2010 national elections.According to Binay, their performance as executives and their real concern for the poor will spell the difference in the polls.
“We do not fear having to face opponents whose main strength is money. Both President Erap and I have proven that the people vote for those who will really care for them and with a concrete track record of accomplishments,” he said.
Binay added that they trust in the wisdom of the people as he expressed confidence that in the coming elections, Filipinos will not be swayed by money.
“The next administration will have a lot of cleaning up to do. We will be left with a government in shambles. The Filipino people, I believe, know that we cannot entrust this major task to those
with little or no executive experience,” he added.
A ranking official of the administration party, for his part, said President Arroyo will definitely help in the campaign procedures that they will soon undertake to further boost the chances of victory for their party’s anointed candidates.
“As a party member and also as a chairman emeritus of the party, we expect the President to be campaigning actively for the standard-bearers together with the national candidates for the party,” Lakas-Kampi-CMD deputy secretary general and Secretary to the Cabinet Silvestre Bello III told reporters.
He added while their expectations for her assistance in the campaign period are high, the manner on how she will carry it out is up for her to decide.
Incoming party secretary general Francis Manglapus, however, expressed in a press statement that Arroyo would rather have Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro run his own campaign as she believes he is already capable of fighting his own battles ahead come elections 2010.
“Having full confidence on the integrity and competence of Gibo to run the country in 2010, the President is giving him full reign to run his campaign,” Manglapus said.
Palace officials and Lakas-Kampi CMD executives, however, immediately belied what they they noticed as needless observation asserting that the practice of arm raising is no longer necessary, as they want to create a new brand of Philippine politics.
Bello and Press Secretary Cerge Remonde both described the raising hands practice as “old-fashioned” which the Lakas-Kampi-CMD would no longer want to adhere.
“We have to emphasize the fact that it is Gibo who is running in 2010 and not President Arroyo.”
“Yesterday’s event was clearly a passing of the torch and those who want to make an issue of the President of not raising the hand of Gibo should be thankful that this early she is passing on the mantle of authority to her successor,” he added.
While the administration party Lakas-Kampi-CMD threw its support to the presidential bid of Teodoro, the people behind the original Lakas party that catapulted former President Fidel Ramos in 1992 to the Palace have expressed their support for the candidacy of Philippine Labor and Peasant Party presidential bet and former Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane.
Former Executive secretary Ruben Torres, now serving as the campaign manager of Ebdane, in a statement said some 50 members of the Lakas party, from incumbent and former Cabinet secretaries, congressmen, governors, mayors and town officials, met with Ebdane at the Diamond Hotel in Manila to discuss the platform of government that the former Public Works secretary plans to push.
After the dialog, they mapped out a manifesto of support for the candidacy of Ebdane.
“While the administration was doing their show, we sat down with the original Lakas members. No shows, just a plain explanation of the platform and people were convinced and now are supporting Secretary Ebdane,” Torres said.
Philippine Labor and Peasant party president Jose Malvar Villegas, another Lakas original, revealed that administration party senatorial bet Silvestre Bello III, a Lakas original, will be meeting with them over the candidacy of Ebdane.
He said they expect more candidates not only from the administration, but the opposition as well, to meet and jump ship to them.
Torres, meanwhile, said they will be meeting with former Speaker Jose de Venecia to discuss as to the next agenda of the Lakas originals.
The administration Lakas-Kampi CMD held its National Convention the other day and formally endorsed the candidacy of Teodoro and his vice presidential candidate television host Edu Manzano.
Conspicuously absent was Ramos, a Lakas original.
Ebdane had earlier stated that he would be seeking the endorsement of the former president, in his bid for the highest post in the land.
“We expect more people to contact us due to the snowballing support for Secretary Ebdane which other candidates are trying to downplay because they could not accept the fact that while they have gone full steam, Jun Ebdane is just starting and he is Ebdane is set to file his certificate of candidacy on Nov. 29.”
Meanwhile, Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer Sen. Benigno “Noynoy”Aquino yesterday said he would not impose his personal views regarding the issue concerning the hero’s burial of former President Ferdinand Marcos, his family’s late nemesis, should he win the presidential elections
next year.
Aquino, who was in Isabela province yesterday to grace Gov. Grace Padaca’s Ugnayang Bayan, and feel the pulse of the people in the province, said despite his understandably having a personal view on the matter, he will not allow this to affect whatever decision may come out from this.
The senator said in case he is lucky enough to win the presidency, he would be forming a committee to decide on the matter of whether Marcos deserved to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, as the late president’s supporters and his family, led by former First Lady Imelda Marcos, want.
“Of course, I cannot totally detach my own personal view on this matter. I will not be a dictator however and force my views on the rest,” Aquino said. Aytch S. de la Cruz, Ted Boehnert and PNA
Source: http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/20091121hed5.html
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