Politics and power play FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 07/15/2010

Politics and power play

FRONTLINE Ninez Cacho-Olivares 07/15/2010 Unholy alliance or not, it is just bad luck on the part of defeated candidate Koko Pimentel that the Senate Electoral Tribunal (SET) — at least the majority — made up of both justices and senators — chose to uphold the petition of Sen. Migz Zubiri to have certain ballot boxes from specific precincts recounted — which naturally delays the protest of Pimentel. It could be called dirty play, but whoever said that politics is clean play? It was of course the dissenting opinion of Justice Antonio Carpio that made sense. It is clear, from the data culled, that indeed, Koko Pimentel’s revised ballot count would put him in the winning circle, but as there is still thing called the majority rule, no matter what Carpio says, it won’t carry much weight — until or unless the majority in the SET go along with him. The fact is that the three mentioned senators are now in alliance with the Angara bloc, and reality says that, as the bloc has seven members — if reports are accurate — both the Manny Villar and the Kiko Pangilinan blocs will have to deal with the seven — if either bloc leader wants the Senate presidency and end up as the majority in the Senate, because neither bloc has the numbers with which to win the top Senate post.... MORE Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100715com2.html

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