LDP merges with PDP-Laban, PMP

The faction of the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino led by LDP president Sen. Edgardo Angara merged yesterday with two other opposition parties, the Partido Demokratikong Pilipino-Laban (PDP-Laban) and the Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP).

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, an LDP member, criticized Angara for entering into a coalition without consulting a majority of the members of the LDP.

Angara said the merger is intended to unify the opposition parties and "present to the people a clear alternative" to what the ruling coalition offers.

"The main focus, the principal goal is presenting our people (with) a clear alternative which is only achievable if we achieve unification and a single candidacy," he said.

Angara, PMP president Horacio Morales and PDP-Laban executive council member Salvador Pangilinan — representing party president Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. — signed the "covenant of national unity for the Filipino people" in a simple ceremony at the Manila Hotel.

The three opposition parties had formed themselves into the "Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino."

In the covenant, the three opposition parties vowed to jointly "undertake the process of national unification to heal our wounded and divided nation, thereby enabling it to overcome its present tribulations and transform itself into a united and greater republic."

The new opposition coalition also presented a seven-point advocacy for good governance that will be its basis for choosing the candidates it will field for the national and local elections next year.

The advocacy includes "eradicating graft and corruption, rebuilding political and social institutions, arresting the slide of the economy, preventing the deterioration of the peace and order situation, bringing back cohesion to our deeply fragmented nation, working together to build a nation that will be able to provide jobs to the unemployed and take care of the basic needs of the Filipino."

The coalition also vowed to unite the country by inculcating discipline among the people and ensuring the rule of law, give the people hope by regaining the country’s pride and restore the dignity of the Filipinos.

Angara said that along with the signing of the covenant is the creation of an 11-man executive committee of the coalition that will formulate the guidelines for the selection of the coalition’s presidential, vice presidential and senatorial candidates for next year’s polls.

"We hope that on or before Dec. 15, we would have come up with a common standard bearer," he said.

Angara said the covenant entered into by the LDP follows a resolution signed last Sept. 25 by the party’s regional and national leaders authorizing him to enter into a coalition "with other political parties, aggrupations and like-minded interest groups, for purposes of the May election next year."

Angara also said negotiations are still ongoing for a possible merger between the LDP and the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) headed by businessman Eduardo Cojuangco Jr.

"The NPC has not decided yet. They have yet to meet on Dec. 15 to decide whether they would merge with us or not," he said.

Morales, who was tasked to negotiate with NPC leaders for a possible merger, said they have had informal talks with NPC president Frisco San Juan who told them the NPC will decide on Friday.

"Many of them are for the opposition… By Friday, I think they will decide," he said.

Cojuangco decided to "lie low" in the meantime to enable him to concentrate on his businesses, Morales added.

He said they are still waiting for the results of the "one-on-one" talks between presidential aspirants Fernando Poe Jr. and Sen. Panfilo Lacson, a member of the LDP. Angara has been pushing for the LDP to support Poe, a non-member who has agreed to submit himself to the party’s selection process.

"We hope they could settle (it) themselves so there will be no more selection process," Morales said.

LDP Divided

Lacson, for his part, said Angara’s unilateral decision to represent the party has widened the gap between Angara’s faction, which favors Poe, and Lacson’s supporters in the LDP.

He also announced that party officials led by LDP secretary general and Makati Rep. Agapito Aquino, House Deputy Minority Leader Rolex Suplico and Palawan Rep. Abraham Mitra will declare him as the LDP’s official standard-bearer today at the Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan.

Lacson said Angara’s move to enter into a coalition is part of a ploy to boost Poe’s bid to be the LDP standard-bearer.

"The coalition is just intended for Mr. Poe. There is no consultation with majority of the LDP members and officers. The PMP president was there without the secretary general," he said.

Lacson said he had a meeting two nights ago with Angara and they had a lengthy discussion regarding the selection process for the standard-bearer of the unified opposition.

He said part of what he discussed with Angara is a scheduled meeting with Poe.

"I’m supposed to meet with (Poe) on Saturday. But a representative of (Poe) informed me this afternoon that he is not yet ready to speak with me. So my representatives are still talking with (Poe’s) camp," Lacson said.

He added that his camp is trying to "find a solution to resolve the seeming break-up in the LDP. Some PMP members are also invited for tomorrow’s nomination by LDP members and officers of my presidential candidacy."

Grand Plan

Meanwhile, LDP regional leaders said moves to ease out Angara as LDP president are part of a grand plan to sow discord and dissension within the party.

In a joint statement, Governors Antonio Calingin and George Hofer of Misamis Oriental and Zamboanga del Sibugay said non-party members are orchestrating moves to divide the party so they can disrupt efforts to unify the opposition.

Calingin and Hofer said a minority group — along with their allies outside the party — wants to tear the LDP apart to accomplish an agenda that cannot be carried out while Angara remains LDP president.

They added that they expect attacks against Angara to become more virulent after the LDP formed a coalition with the PDP-Laban and PMP.

Hofer and Calingin said an overwhelming majority of LDP members are solidly behind Angara’s leadership.

Aquino, on the other hand, urged Angara to take a "leave of absence" from the LDP but stopped short of saying that his expulsion from the LDP is imminent.

He acknowledged that there may be a basis for the complaint filed before him by Mitra and Suplico accusing Angara of "disloyalty, gross violation of the party constitution, and other divisive acts inimical to the interest of the party and its members."

Angara, along with Sen. Vicente Sotto III, has been publicly supporting Poe’s presidential bid.

"If (Angara) is supporting somebody outside of the party, that can be considered disloyal to the party or (an) action that (is) inimical to party interest. He has to justify this," Aquino said. "If our leader is stopping the ambition of his members, instead of opposing them he should take a leave of absence."

He cited the move made by Sen. Rodolfo Biazon, who filed an indefinite leave from the LDP last week. Biazon has since defected to the Aksyon Demokratiko party of presidential aspirant Raul Roco in his bid for re-election next year.

Meanwhile, House Minority Leader Carlos Padilla, a key LDP official, is reportedly being wooed to join Roco’s camp after he was said to be sidelined by Angara.

Padilla said former congressman Gualberto Lumauig approached him to join Roco’s party. Lumauig was originally from the ruling party Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats.

"I just told them, let’s keep the lines of communication open," he said.

Padilla and many opposition congressmen supporting Lacson’s bid are complaining that Angara has been targeting them in a bid to purge the LDP. — With Ann Corvera, Paolo Romero