Lakas to elect GMA as national chairman

The ruling Lakas-NUCD was scheduled last night to unanimously elect President Arroyo as national chairman in place of Speaker Jose de Venecia who has volunteered to yield the post to her.

"Her election will inaugurate the new politics of the center, said Jose Ma. Rufino, Lakas national executive director.

Rufino said De Venecia was scheduled to nominate the President as Lakas national chairman. De Venecia’s nomination speech was expected to highlight her "great moral courage, intelligence and the strong political will she has exercised" since coming to power in January 2001.

The President was also expected to nominate De Venecia as national co-chairman and chairman of the powerful Lakas executive committee. De Venecia was a co-founder of Lakas in 1992 with the late Sen. Raul Manglapus, then Defense Secretary Fidel Ramos, Agusan del Norte Rep. Edelmiro Amante, and the late Misamis Occidental Rep. Hilarion Ramiro Jr.

Rufino said the election of the President and of De Venecia would strengthen the party ranks and dispel rumors of a power struggle among its top leaders.

"We have emerged stronger. There is no power struggle in the party," he stressed.

Previously, there were predictions that the President would junk Lakas in favor of her former party, Kampi, or a coalition of political parties. She dispelled such rumors by assuming the national chairmanship of Lakas.

All the rest of the positions in the Lakas executive committee were expected to remain unchanged, with Vice President and Foreign Secretary Teofisto Guingona staying on as president.

The opposition had earlier warned that the President’s assumption of the national chairmanship of Lakas would embroil her in partisan activities as she would now be involved in day-to-day activities of the ruling party.

Opposition Sen. Blas Ople said that previously, an incumbent president was named as mere party figurehead.

"This was meant to shield the President from partisanship. Now the President has decided to take a direct hand in running a political party. I only hope this will not be at the cost of sacrificing vital socio-economic reforms," Ople said.

He said that with this development, the President has contradicted her earlier call for less politics.

"It will be all politics for the President from hereon," Ople predicted. – Efren Danao