Noy confirms coalition of LP, NP, NPC in 2013 elections

MANILA, Philippines – President Aquino confirmed yesterday the imminent coalition of the ruling Liberal Party with the Nacionalista Party and the Nationalist People’s Coalition to field common candidates in the May 2013 senatorial elections.

“I think the talks (with the NP and NPC) were very successful. But I will leave it up to our party president, (Transportation Secretary) Mar Roxas, to make the appropriate announcements,” he told reporters at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.

Sen. Franklin Drilon, an LP stalwart, earlier conceded they could not fill up the 12-man LP slate and will be recruiting from other parties to field senatorial candidates next year.

“There are a number of coalition talks going on. I am not at liberty to reveal them. In reality, we cannot have a pure LP slate. We do not have a monopoly of politics. So, we will have a coalition with a number of political parties,” he said.

“Let me just say that these are not very easy things to come up with. There are a lot of complications and we are very careful because we want a coalition partner that is in sync with us insofar as the programs of the President are concerned,” Drilon added.

At present, the LP senatorial candidates include Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority director-general Joel Villanueva, Customs commissioner Ruffy Biazon, ex-Akbayan party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros and Aquino’s cousin Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino.

Only Biazon is an original LP member. Angara is with Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino, Villanueva with party-list group Citizens Battle Against Corruption, Hontiveros with Akbayan and Bam with non-government organization Kaya Natin.

Other possible LP senatorial contenders are House Deputy Speaker Lorenzo Tañada III (an LP original), ex-senator Ramon Magsaysay Jr., Movie and Television Review and Classification Board chief Grace Poe-Llamanzares and incumbent Sen. Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel, who left the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA).

The senatorial candidates of NP are led by Sen. Manny Villar’s wife and former Las Piñas Rep. Cynthia Villar, re-electionist Senators Alan Peter Cayetano and Antonio Trillanes IV and former Surigao del Norte congressman and governor Robert Ace Barbers.

As for NPC, it will be re-electionist Senators Francis Escudero and Loren Legarda, who both topped the May 2007 senatorial polls and will be joining the administration slate.

There are also talks that Valenzuela City Mayor Sherwin Gatchalian might be included in the NPC’s Senate slate. His younger brother, Rep. Rex Gatchalian is an NPC official.

Sherwin can either join LP, with whom NPC has coalesced, or UNA which has close ties with former President Joseph Estrada, who heads the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP).

The LP-NP-NPC coalition will be up against the opposition UNA led by Estrada and Vice President Jejomar Binay.

Binay has also vowed to run for president in 2016 against President Aquino’s candidate.

UNA is the coalition of Estrada’s PMP and Binay’s Partido Demokratikong Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban).

Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III, a leader of NPC, also confirmed that there are talks between LP and NPC to field common candidates for the senatorial race next year.

Sotto, however, expressed concern there was a possibility that some candidates would have overlapping endorsements from the LP-NP-NPC bloc and the UNA coalition.

He was referring to the case of Senators Legarda, Escudero and Gregorio Honasan. All three are being wooed by NPC for its slate. –-Delon Porcalla (The Philippine Star) with Jess Diaz, Christina Mendez, Jose Rodel Clapano, Teddy Molina, Danny Dangcalan