Fractious LP eyes big pie EDITORIAL 07/30/2010

Fractious LP eyes big pie

EDITORIAL Click to enlarge 07/30/2010 The Liberal Party (LP) is trying to throw its weight around in the ongoing tussle at the Senate for prime committee posts with its members seeking to corner the most sought-after chairmanships, drawing the comment from Sen. Joker Arroyo that it was a case of the smaller guys wanting to get the bigger pie. Sen. Francis Pangilinan’s withdrawal from the Senate presidency was hailed by his partymates as an act of statesmanship, but now the LP is into arm-twisting in the Senate to lay its members’ hands on the juicy posts. Despite the fact that the current president is a party member, the LP, it seems, is finding it difficult to haul in recruits from both the Senate and the House of Representatives, thus weakening President Aquino’s legislative leverage on the many bills that he claims he plans to pursue in his reform agenda. Speaker Sonny Belmonte, a Lakas-Kampi turncoat and now an LP member, won the top House post, but only as a result of a tactical alliance, mainly with members of Gloria Arroyo’s Lakas-Kampi-CMD party. Of the 90 or so House members who voted Belmonte into the speakership, not even 30 are card-bearing LP members. The case in the Senate is the same, with only four party members out of the 23 senators..... MORE Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100730com1.html

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