Erap says JDV welcome to join opposition

Former President Joseph Estrada yesterday said Pangasinan Rep. Jose de Venecia Jr. is welcome in the opposition once he is expelled from Lakas.

Estrada, however, said that the opposition has yet to hear from the former speaker whether he is joining them.

“We will talk about that. Former House speaker De Venecia is welcome in the opposition. He has not informed us yet whether he wants to join us and we have yet to talk about it,” Estrada said in an interview with The STAR.

Meanwhile, a senior House member will take the cudgels for De Venecia as he teeters on the brink of being expelled from the ruling Lakas-CMD party, owing to accusations he hurled against its chairman, President Arroyo.

Lakas stalwart Matias Defensor, chairman of the justice committee of the House of Representatives, called on their Lakas colleagues to go slow on the Pangasinan congressman, who is now the party’s president emeritus.

“Wala akong gagawin against JDV, (I won’t do anything against JDV). He is the founder of Lakas. He has done much for the organization,” the Quezon City congressman said. “I think he is entitled to his opinion. If the party will sanction him, I will be the first one to stand to support and defend him.”

Defensor, however, admitted that it was uncalled for on the part of the ousted speaker to make sweeping accusations against his House colleagues, particularly his allegations that they received P500,000 in bribes from Malacañang.

“Kaya lang nakakalungkot, he has built its (House) reputation pero parang siya rin ang sumisira  (However it’s sad because he has built the reputation of the House but it seems he’s the one destroying it),” he said.

Aside from Lakas-CMD ouster issue, De Venecia is also facing an expulsion complaint before the House committee on ethics, which was filed by Agusan del Norte Rep. Edelmiro Amante, who, ironically, was the former speaker’s co-founder of Lakas in 1992.

Out of delicadeza, Speaker Prospero Nograles decided not to preside over the executive committee meeting of Lakas-CMD next week to decide the expulsion issue against De Venecia.

Instead, Nograles named Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, secretary-general of Lakas-CMD, and Quezon City Mayor Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte Jr. to jointly preside the meeting.

Palawan Rep. Abraham Mitra earlier said De Venecia is dreaming on his call for people to go to the streets, saying the epitome of a traditional politician in him defeats the very purpose of advocating good governance.

Mitra is the son of the late speaker Ramon Mitra who defeated President Fidel Ramos and De Venecia in the 1991 LDP convention for party candidate in the presidential race.

De Venecia and Ramos then bolted the (Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino) LDP and founded Partido Lakas ng Tao, now named Lakas-CMD.

Ramos, who served as defense secretary during the time of former President Corazon Aquino, was eventually anointed by the ex-president, and won in the 1992 presidential polls, with a very slight margin over Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago. – With Delon Porcalla