Aquino allies step up bids for top Congress posts
By Angie M. Rosales and Gerry Baldo 06/11/2010 The jockeying for position for the leadership of both chambers of Congress heated up some more yesterday as putative candidates for the Speakership and the Senate presidency stepped up efforts to gain support for their bids. Sen. Francis Pangilinan practically named yesterday the senators he is banking for support on his bid for the Senate leadership, naming among them known allies of Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. who was believed to be also gunning for the seat as well as incumbent Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile when the 15th Congress opens on July 26. Pangilinan said the fate of his bid for the Senate presidency will not depend on the choice of his Liberal Party (LP) but the vote of 13 or more senators implying that he may pursue his candidacy even if another senator, likely Senator-elect Franklin Drilon, becomes the LP’s choice. “Thirteen senators are needed (to elect the Senate chief). There are only four of us (from LP). That is why it is so important to reach out to at least nine others and be able to convince them to help join us in advancing anti-corruption programs and anti-poverty agenda of President-elect (Benigno) Aquino III, or anyone willing to align with us,” he told reporters during a news forum in the Senate. Pangilinan does not discount the possibility of Enrile retaining his post as “compromise” candidate, “if there will be a stalemate.” “If he (Enrile) doesn’t have 13 votes, that’s not good. It does not speak well of the Senate if any of us cannot even get 13,” he said. The Lakas-Kampi-CMD party of outbound Arroyo, meanwhile, admitted some of its members have indicated intentions to either jump ship or support the candidate for Speakership of the Aquino administration. Party spokesman Local Water Utilities Administration chairman Prospero Pichay Jr. said 24 party members are set to bolt the party and support the speakership bid of Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte, who was a former Lakas-Kampi-CMD officer with the position of party vice president for external affairs before jumping to the LP prior to the May 10 polls. Belmonte was also the executive vice president and treasurer of the defunct Lakas CMD, the predecessor of Lakas Kampi CMD. Pichay said Arroyo, as chairman of the party, has allowed the 24 members to retain their respective status as party members in a bid to remain as the dominant bloc in the House of Representatives with 109 members. “Our party will now be divided into the majority and minority when the 15th Congress opens. It’s a sad development but some of us have their particular reasons for not joining our attempt to retain power in the Lower House, we cannot prevent it and we are just respecting the decision of our partymates,” and Lakas-Kampi-CMD member Zambales Rep. Mitos Magsaysay told reporters during the Usaping Balita News Forum yesterday. Source: The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100611hed2.html/ |
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