‘Fear of Noynoy presidency prompted Marcoses to run’

Nation
Sunday, 20 December 2009 20:12



Original Story: http://businessmirror.com.ph/home/nation/19955-fear-of-noynoy-presidency-prompted-marcoses-to-run.html


Laoag City—It is the worry of Mrs. Imelda Marcos that the late President Cory Aquino’s son, Noynoy, would win the presidency, especially since his campaign is being boosted by almost stratospheric survey results, that drove the Marcoses to also try to win political seats.

It appeared from what President Ferdinand Marcos nephew Michael Keon, his sports czar during the dictatorship, had said, that Mrs. Marcos believes Noynoy would intensify government effort not only to track and legally claim their hidden wealth but to finally pin the assassination of his father, Ninoy, on the Marcoses.

Keon practically revealed this on Thursday evening when he finally broke his silence on the spectacle of the Marcos clan divided—he for reelection as governor with the seat being contested by Imee Marcos, and Mrs. Marcos against almost lifelong Marcos loyalist Mariano Nalupta.

Their having become “enemies,” according to Keon, keeps “hurting” him because, while he would like to give in to his cousin, he could not simply “evade” the call of the Ilocos Norte electorate for him to run again and defend his “pride and dignity as a person” and to protect the interest of everybody.

Keon has also become the sports czar of the province after capturing the governorship and continued his interest in sports by training more than a thousand employees of the Capitol, some of whom had become champions in national and provincial games.

He told the employees during their Christmas program at the Ilocos Norte Convention Center on Thursday evening that “it was not my style to surrender.”

As a sportsman who believes in “honor, fairness and sportsmanship,” he said he just made the “toughest decision” in his entire life and decided not to withdraw—win or lose. “But I say this with a heavy heart, because I don’t want to hurt relatives.”

Keon also denied saying that “Ilocos is for Marcos but not Villar,” in reference to Bongbong Marcos as senatorial guest candidate of the Nacionalista Party (NP), now led by its presidential standard bearer Sen. Manuel Villar.

He added the quote mentioned in a story in a national daily was “taken out of context.”

He reiterated that when the Marcos family helped him to be elected as governor of Ilocos Norte in 2007, he was already with the administration (Lakas-Kampi), while his cousins have always been with the opposition. “We have an understanding within the family and never did we talk about implementing this.”  

He also added that it was not he who brought all the mayors of Ilocos Norte into the Lakas-Kampi-CMD coalition, because all the 23 mayors were already with the administration when they ran in previous elections and remained up to this day, except for Mayor Bonifacio Clemente of Paoay, who is now with the NP.

Mrs. Marcos has said, on the other hand, that her running for a House seat in the province’s Second District was for “justice—for the widow, orphans and the dead.” --L. Adriano


Original Story: http://businessmirror.com.ph/home/nation/19955-fear-of-noynoy-presidency-prompted-marcoses-to-run.html