Common standard bearer in 2010 polls will save doomed Lakas-Kampi merger
MANILA, Philippines – House Speaker Prospero Nograles is calling all pro-administration parties to field a common standard bearer for 2010 presidential elections, as negotiations to merge Lakas-CMD and Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi) near collapse.
In her report in GMA News’ 24 Oras Thursday, Maki Pulido said the merger of Lakas and Kampi seems impossible to attain before 2010 elections. Instead, Arroyo allies are now working to have a common presidential candidate to make pro-administration coalition parties intact.
“Ang importante lang sa mga political parties na identified sa administration is to have a common candidate for 2010 elections, that way hindi magbi-break up ‘yan,” said Nograles, president of Lakas-CDM.
For his part, political analyst Mon Casiple predicted that political issues would heat up this year, with the issue on Charter change at the center of it.
“The scenario on Cha-cha will determine whether there will be presidential elections in 2010 or something else, plebiscite probably or elections for members of parliament,” Casiple explained.
Once the Cha-cha issue is over, Casiple said then the landscape and alliances of political parties would be known, adding that serious presidential contenders would dictate new political coalitions.
Among the so-called presidentiables, former Senate President Manny Villar and Sen Mar Roxas are leader of political parties. Villar is the president of Nacionalista Party, oldest political party in the country, while Roxas leads the Liberal Party.
Sens Loren Legarda and Francis Escudero are both members of the Nationalist Peoples Coalition founded by business tycoon Eduardo Cojuangco.
Meanwhile, administration ally Vice President Noli De Castro remains to be an independent. – Fidel Jimenez, GMANews.TV
Tags: charter change, francis escudero, liberal party, loren legarda, manny villar, mar roxas, Noli De Castro, Presidentiables, presidential contender, presidential contenders, prospero nograles, senate president, vice president
