Predicting top Senate win EDITORIAL 07/13/2010

Predicting top Senate win

EDITORIAL Click to enlarge 07/13/2010 Too bad we don’t have Paul the Octopus, that was spot on in all his predictions of winners in the World Cup’s football to predict the likely winner of the country’s Senate President. Still, given the developments in the Senate political arena, and the different blocs that exist today, before the Senate opens and votes for its leader, neither the Liberal Party (LP) bloc, headed by Sen. Francisco Pangilinan, nor the Nacionalista Party (NP) bloc, headed by Sen. Manny Villar, said to be the major contenders, may win the Senate crown, and the likely winner would be either Sen. Ed Angara or the hold-over or compromise Senate President Juan Ponce-Enrile. It’s really just a matter of doing the math and analyzing the improbabilities of one bloc merging with the other bloc that is more or less regarded as one bloc’s perceived foe. The LP bloc does not have enough votes to land the plum Senate prize and can only count on six sure votes, counting Pangilinan; eight, if he gets the vote of Enrile and Sen. Jinggoy Estrada. Even if two more allies show up to vote, say, Sen. Panfilo Lacson and detained Sen. Sonny Trillanes, the LP bet still would be short of the needed 13 votes. He must therefore try to get anywhere from five senators from a different bloc at the most, or at least three more from a different bloc, if Pangilinan already has the votes of Lacson and Trillanes locked in. It is highly unlikely that the LP bet can get anyone from the NP camp of Manny Villar, which is also short in numbers, as of this time. The presidential campaign, where the LPs and the NPs were pitted against each other created deep wounds that have hardly healed.... MORE Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100713com1.html

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