Roco to run even without PPC support

Former education secretary Raul Roco said yesterday he will push through with his presidential bid next year even without the support of the ruling People Power Coalition (PPC).

"Maaasahan niyo (you can count on it)," Roco told reporters during the weekly Balitaan sa Rembrandt Hotel in Quezon City.

Although his Aksyon Demokratiko Party is a member of PPC, he said he is not fully expecting to become the administration party candidate in the coming elections.

Roco, who topped a pre-election survey released by the FYI Research and Consulting Group, said that surveys are only "road maps" which will provide the direction but will not make any candidate win the election.

"Surveys are road maps but they are not roads, it will only help you find your direction," he said, adding that people, not the surveys, political machinery or even money will determine the result of the elections.

He said there are insinuations from Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. of Lakas-CMD to recruit him to participate in the selection process of the party’s standard-bearer. But he said this is unfair because when he supported EDSA people power II, which led to the ouster of then President Joseph Estrada, he was never asked to join Lakas.

"I think it’s not proper for me to join Lakas," he said, adding that as of now he already has the machinery and the "legal funds" to push through with his presidential bid.

Roco has also branded as "cockeyed" the idea being floated by some supporters of Mrs. Arroyo that she be drafted as a transition president once the form of government shifts to parliamentary.

He said whoever thought it up wants to demote the President from a legitimate to a mere transition leader. Such scenario, he said, can only happen if there is a shift from dictatorship to a democratic form of government. And even in communist countries which shifted to democracy there was no such thing as a transition president.

Roco said his platform of government will focus on "zero tolerance" for corruption, which he blamed as the main stumbling block to the country’s progress.

He disclosed that when he visited the United States to meet his Filipino American supporters, one of the major issues raised was the worsening corruption in government.

He said the country’s problem with smuggling and illegal drugs is tied up to the corrupt system of government.

Roco cited an incident in Bicol where rice smugglers abandoned a boatload of smuggled rice after they were able to unload 10 sacks, which residents suspected to contain shabu.

He also warned that the so-called narco-politics will soon interfere in the government’s anti-drug campaign as what happened in South America where powerful drug cartels sometimes dictate the affairs of State.

He believes that public executions, dramatic shootouts and high profile campaigns will only worsen the drug problem. Instead, he stressed that the government must focus its attention on eliminating corruption which is the root of the problem.

Roco said his Fil-am supporters expressed concern that the corruption has reached to a level where those who pay bribes no longer get what they want in return.

"In other corrupt countries if you pay bribe money you get the favor but in the Philippines today, even if you pay you still do not get the favor and in some cases may utang ka pa (you still have debts to settle)," he said.

Roco disclosed that his supporters — composed of the youth, the women’s sector, and other groups — have started setting up a nationwide network in preparation for future political activities.