JDV: I’m no angel, but…

He says he’s no angel and admits he’s a traditional politician (trapo), but Pangasinan Rep. Jose de Venecia says he’s a good traditional politician.

Since winning a seat in Congress, De Venecia has launched a blitzkrieg to bag the speakership for the third time, but the trapo tag is seen as his main stumbling block.

This came as Rep. Edelmiro Amante (Lakas, Agusan del Norte), said that the House needs some one like De Venecia at this crucial time of the country. Amante claimed that De Venecia towers over all his other rivals in stature and in leadership ability.

"I don’t want to present myself here as an angel because we all have our own dirty linen," De Venecia told a breakfast forum in Quezon City. "But let us begin to wash our robes clean and start all over again."

He likened himself to former presidents Manuel Quezon and Manuel Roxas, and even to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and US President John F. Kennedy, saying he is a traditional politician espousing new politics.

"I am not the bad traditional politician. I am a good traditional politician who is after sweeping reforms in government," De Venecia said.

He promised a fresh start for the House of Representatives as head of a "sunshine coalition" that would bring the country to new heights of prosperity.

He said tat all he wants to do is help President Arroyo rebuild the economy.

"I’ve been a Speaker twice. I have seen power and glory. I don’t carry excess baggage," he contended.

He has drafted a 52-page economic recovery plan for the country, which he named "747," after the Boeing jumbo jet.

"It is so called because it means a seven-percent growth rate at the end of seven years," he explained.

De Venecia described the program as a variation of the New Deal economic recovery plan of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration after the US recession and the stock market crash in 1929.

He said that he has already presented a copy of the proposal to the President, who was his running mate in the 1998 presidential elections.

He stressed that he is not seeking the President’s intervention in the speakership intramurals. He also doubted the feasibility of the President’s proposal on sharing the term of the speakership during the 12th Congress with another aspirant. His leaders claim that they have already secured the support of at least 131 congressmen, more than the majority required to get elected.

Meanwhile, Amante, who is another House "returnee," said yesterday that none of the rivals of De Venecia for the speakership could match his ability to draw consensus or forge a golden mean, his leadership in getting vital pieces of legislation passed, and his international stature.

Amante, also a former executive secretary, said criticisms of De Venecia’s being a trapo do not consider at all the latter’s many significant achievements in promoting national welfare.

"If being a trapo means successfully pushing for approval of important measures, then we need more trapos like Joe de Venecia," Amante said.

He said that De Venecia’s rival for the speakership, Batanes Rep. Florencio Abad, is a "hard-liner" and is not expected to enter into compromises to get a middle-of-the-ground solution on contentious issues.

"He did not even get confirmed by the Commission on Appointments because he does not know how to compromise," Amante said of Abad.

He expressed confidence that most of the legislators from Mindanao would support De Venecia in the speakership race. – Romel Bagares, Efren Danao