FORMER Batangas Gov. Armando Sanchez bolted the Liberal Party and brought his band of 175 local officials over to the Nationalista Party, to which they took their oath before NP standard-bearer Senator Manuel Villar on Saturday.Sanchez said he felt it was like “adding insult to injury” when the Liberals allowed Batangas Gov. Vilma Santos-Recto and husband Ralph Recto to join the party.
Recto is the brother of Sanchez’s former vice governor, Richard Recto, whom Sanchez had accused of attempting to murder him, while movie actress Santos-Recto defeated Sanchez in the 2007 gubernatorial race.
“As soon as [Sanchez] heard the news that the Rectos were asked to join the LP, Sanchez immediately called up Senator Villar and volunteered that he be made Vilma Santos-Recto’s opponent in the gubernatorial race,” a Nacionalista official said.
Of the 34 municipalities in Batangas, only five mayors went with Santos-Recto to join the Liberals, the official said, adding that the 175 local executives that went with Sanchez practically wiped out the party’s slate in Batangas.
Senatorial aspirant Sergio Osmeña III last week also bolted the Liberals because of the Rectos, citing in particular Recto’s having served as an Arroyo economic planning secretary.
Recto’s brother, the vice governor in September 2005, had charged Sanchez with graft and corruption before the Ombudsman. The rivalry escalated when the Ombudsman suspended Sanchez and ordered him to vacate the governor’s office, but Sanchez barricaded the provincial capitol until he was able to secure a court order stopping the Ombudsman.
The former vice governor is now in hiding because of a warrant for his arrest, and after Sanchez had accused him of having plotted the bombing of his Humvee in June 2006, when Sanchez narrowly escaped death while two of his aides died in the explosion.
Recto and his suspected accomplice, lawyer Francisco Belmonte, nephew of Quezon City Mayor Sonny Belmonte, remain at large.
Despite the attack, the Liberal Party still chose Santos-Recto over Sanchez for his failure to curve illegal gambling in the province.
Senator Francis Pangilinan, a party stalwart, belittled the ongoing defections, saying the Liberals were better off than the Lakas-Kampi-CMD and the mass exodus in it.
“Because of the massive outpouring of support for the Noynoy-Mar ticket throughout the country, it is but natural that there will be differing and opposing views in the organization. This is how it is in a democracy,” Pangilinan said.
“As regards former Senator Osmeña III, it is clear from his public statements that he continues to support Noynoy and believes that Noynoy has both the sincerity and integrity needed to lead the country toward a new direction in governance and political change. We are sorry to have to see him leave the coalition, and we hope that he will, in the coming months, reconsider his decision.”
Source: http://www.manilastandardtoday.com/insideNews.htm?f=2009/november/23/news2.isx&d=/2009/november/23
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