THE ruling Lakas-Kampi-CMD party will field only seven senatorial bets next year unless guest candidates or other administration officials agree to fill up the other five slots, a Palace official said yesterday.“We are not filling up the entire 12 [slots],’’ Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said.
“What we want is to have a compact team to have better chances of winning. We are being deliberate in our choices.”
The seven candidates, to be introduced at the party’s national convention today at the Philippine International Convention Center, includes two actors turned politicians, a businessman, two Cabinet officials, and a relative of President Gloria Arroyo.
Senators and former actors Ramon Revilla Jr. and Lito Lapid, both seeking re-election, lead the Lakas-Kampi ticket, which also includes broadcaster and newspaper columnist Rey Langit; Cabinet secretaries Silvestre Bello III and Francisco Duque III; the President’s first cousin, Binaloan Mayor Ramon Guico Jr.; and businessman Jesus Arranza, who is president of the Federation of Philippine Industries.
Ermita said Guico, a three term president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines, was endorsed by at least 800 Lakas-Kampi-CMD members.
A political analyst saw the seven-member lineup as a sign of weakness.
“They are scraping the bottom of the barrel,” said Ramon Casiple, executive director of the Institute of Political Reforms, who added that the only common denominator of the seven candidates was their loyalty to President Arroyo.
“They were not able to fill up their slate,’’ Casipe said in a telephone interview.
“Lakas-Kampi-CMD must be facing huge problems to field such virtually unknown candidates while their high-profile members, such as Batangas Governor Vilma Santos and Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte, have defected to other parties.
“This shows that mere identification—and we are not even talking about endorsement here—with President Arroyo is already the kiss of death. This is possibly the reason why there are no takers [of the senatorial slots].”
Casipe said that while he expected the party to choose people loyal to the President, he was surprised that they would repeat the mistakes of the 2007 election of fielding candidates who had a slim chance of winning.
“I was surprised that they had to stoop that low for their choices,” he said.
“These people, maybe except for Bong [Revilla], are loyal to President Arroyo but are not winnable.”
But Ermita said the party was still sounding out Finance Secretary Margarito Teves, Tourism Secretary Ace Durano, and Dangerous Drugs Board chairman Vicente Sotto III to join the ticket.
He said Metro Manila Development Authority Chairman Bayani Fernando was also welcome to join the senatorial slate if he gave up his plan to run for president. The same was true of former Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane.
“We have seven now. I cannot assure you that it will be increased to 12,” Ermita said.
“If the people I mentioned suddenly change their mind and throw their hats into the ring, we have a lot of slots available for them.”
Ermita said the party was also open to accepting guest candidates, including re-electionists Miriam Defensor Santiago and Juan Ponce Enrile, who looked set to join the ticket of ousted President Joseph Estrada.
“We want a small compact team that can move forward in the campaign better without precluding in the future some people being interested and completing the slate,” Ermita said.
He said the party was also open to inviting Filipino boxing champion Manny Pacquiao to run for senator under the administration banner if he decided to give politics another shot.
Despite the incomplete slate, Ermita said today’s national convention would “announce to the whole world that Lakas-Kampi-CMD is ready for political combat, and that from where it stands right now, it is still the biggest and best organized party.”
At the convention, the party is set to nominate former Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro as its presidential candidate, and TV host and actor Edu Manzano as its vice presidential bet.
Ermita said former President Fidel Ramos, chairman emeritus of the original Lakas-CMD, was invited to attend but he would be out of the country until Sunday.
“He knows the developments in the party. We have been informing him,” Ermita said.
Ramos was earlier offered the position of chairman emeritus of the merged Lakas-Kampi CMD party, but he has not accepted.
Source: http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/insideNews.htm?f=2009/november/19/news1.isx&d=/2009/november/19
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