Lakas-NPC alliance tried and tested — JDV

The alliance between the administration’s Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) and the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) is as strong as ever.

This was the sentiment expressed by Speaker Jose de Venecia, Lakas-CMD party president, two days after the Sandiganbayan lifted the government’s sequestration order on a large block of shares of Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. in food and beverage giant San Miguel Corp. (SMC).

Cojuangco is the founder of the NPC, the party under which he might make a second bid for the presidency next year.

The two parties have an existing coalition in the House of Representatives, which De Venecia described as a "tried and tested partnership that has helped bring about political and economic reforms for the country."

De Venecia expressed the belief that the NPC will stick it out with Lakas, despite efforts of the opposition to recruit the NPC to its camp.

The Speaker said he based his observation on his recent conversations with party leaders including Cojuangco, Isabela Gov. Faustino Dy who chairs the NPC, party president Frisco San Juan, Tarlac Rep. Gilberto Teodoro and Cebu Rep. Joseph Durano, the party’s secretary general.

De Venecia explained that the alliance between the Lakas-CMD and NPC, along with other "patriotic, God-fearing and like-minded" parties in the House of Representatives, has helped stabilize the country and resulted in the passage of vital socio-economic legislation in the chamber.

Aside from Lakas-CMD and NPC, members of the coalition include the Liberal Party, the Nacionalista Party, Aksyon Demokratiko, Reporma and Probinsiya Muna Development Initiative.

After the legal freeze on Cojuangco’s 20 percent share in SMC was lifted by the Sandiganbayan on Wednesday, speculations started circulating that the controversial ruling has political color. Insinuations as to a probable deal between Malacañang and Cojuangco for political expediency have been floated around, which the Palace vehemently denied.

Cojuangco, chairman emeritus of NPC, ran for president in 1992 but lost to former President Fidel Ramos. Reports said that the business tycoon is still mulling whether to join the presidential race next May.

The NPC said yesterday it is still studying its options for the 2004 polls.

Ilocos Norte Rep. Roque Ablan said Cojuangco, who has yet to announce whether he is running or not, should not be pressured by either side.

Ablan said that Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr.’s challenge for Cojuangco to declare whether he is with the opposition or the administration will put the business tycoon in a spot.

Cojuangco’s supporters, led by Negros Oriental Rep. Jacinto Paras, on the other hand, are pushing the businessman to run.

Meanwhile, De Venecia yesterday sought to trace NPC’s long history of association with Lakas.

"Our partnership, our formal and concrete relationship with NPC began way back in 1992," De Venecia recalled. "Because of the NPC, former President Fidel Ramos was able to lead the country effectively despite having a plurality vote of five percent," he said.

"Because of NPC, I became Speaker of the House even if Lakas only had 25 lawmakers then, and the opposition’s Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) had 87 congressmen," he added, referring to the "Rainbow Coalition."

This, he said, continued up to the 1995 senatorial elections and was only suspended during the term of deposed President Joseph Estrada in 1998. It was revived right after EDSA II under the so-called "Sunshine Coalition."

As this developed, the Coconut Industry Reform Movement (COIR) has urged President Arroyo to assure the country’s coconut farmers that the government will exhaust all means to pursue the case against Cojuangco, specifically his 20 percent share in SMC which the government alleges was obtained using the coconut levy fund.

What worries the coconut farmers, according to COIR, is the fact the administration has never referred to Cojuangco as respondent to the cases filed by the Presidential Commission on Good Government.