Lacson criticizes Legarda

SENATORS Manuel Villar and Loren Legarda, the Nacionalista Party’s candidates for president and vice president next year, were right to team up because “they deserve each other,” Senator Panfilo Lacson said yesterday.

Legarda, who bolted the Nationalist People’s Coalition to accept the Nacionalista Party’s invitation to run with Villar on Tuesday, had joined Lacson and Senator Jamby Madrigal in calling for Villar’s ouster as Senate president following Lacson’s claim that Villar had benefited from a double financing for the C5 road extension project.

Lacson could not hide his disappointment over Legarda’s about-face yesterday.

“I gave Senator Loren my word that I would not hit her,” he said, after she had called him to inform him of her decision to run with Villar.

“What I can say is that it is only right that they should team up because they are suited to each other. They have the same character, the same credibility. So they really deserve each other.”

Legarda denied claims she was offered campaign funding to become the Nacionalista Party’s guest candidacy.

“I can look directly in your eyes. There was no discussion of money,” she told reporters.

She said she resented critics who treated her “like a commodity...” that anybody could buy at the right price.

Earlier, Senator Jamby Madrigal said Legarda, who used to be “rabidly against” Villar, had turned into “his Girl Friday.”

“As they say, Manny talks and money talks louder,” Madrigal said in a statement from the Netherlands.

“I will not subscribe to political prostitution when the country’s interest is at stake.”

Legarda said it was inaccurate to describe her and Villar as former enemies because they had not figured in any personal or political feud.

“What is important is we are teaming up because we have a shared and common vision for the country,” she said.

She also took a snipe at an anonymous e-mail campaign against her.

“I don’t bother to read the negative because my politics is positive,” she said.

“Our people cannot eat dirty politics.”

Legarda was one of the senators who supported the Senate investigation of Madrigal’s ethics complaint against Villar over allegations of impropriety in the C5 Road project. She was also part of the Nov. 17, 2008 coup that led to Villar’s ouster as Senate president.

But Legarda this week said she now believed that the charges against Villar were politically motivated, and that he should be cleared by the Senate committee of the whole. Fel V. Maragay


Source: http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/insideNews.htm?f=/2009/november/19/news6.isx&d=/2009/november/19