Leni named Liberal Party chairman

MANILA, Philippines - Vice President Leni Robredo has been appointed chairman of the Liberal Party (LP).

The National Executive Council of the LP ratified the party chairmanship of Robredo during a meeting at the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City yesterday – its first since the May elections.

Sen. Francis Pangilinan was named LP president.

The LP members approved a resolution ratifying the appointments of Robredo and Pangilinan.

LP vice chairman Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon and other party members including former speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., Sen. Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, former interior secretary Manuel Roxas II, former budget secretary Florencio Abad, former senator Wigberto Tañada and Reps. Jose Christopher Belmonte, Josephine Ramirez-Sato, Teodoro Baguilat Jr., Edcel Lagman, Raul Daza and Jorge Banal also attended the meeting.

The LP also approved a resolution conferring the title of chairman emeritus on former president Benigno Aquino III, who was not present at the meeting.

In her speech, Robredo urged her partymates to work together to rebuild the LP.

The LP gave Pangilinan the authority to appoint other party officers and political units.

Despite the dwindling number of party members, Pangilinan said he decided to take up the LP presidency “not because of the certainty of victory, but because of the certainty of our conviction.”

He said he would continue to strive to rebuild the LP as a genuine people’s party and infuse it with new blood from academe, basic sectors, civil society organizations, entrepreneurs, the religious and faith-based sectors, arts and culture, and women.

In a message read during the meeting, LP member and Sen. Leila de Lima, who is detained on drug charges at the Philippine National Police custodial center at Camp Crame, said she remains proud to be “yellow” despite the negative association aimed at the party by its critics.

A majority of the LP members in the House of Representatives jumped ship to President Duterte’s PDP-Laban after the May elections.

Leni counter-poll protest

Meanwhile, supporters of Vice President Robredo will appeal the Supreme Court (SC)’s decision rejecting their petition to allow them to contribute funds for her counter-electoral protest against former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Six former awardees of The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service or TOWNS filed the petition before the SC, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), last June.

“We are disappointed with the PET’s decision. We are composed of 25,000 Filipinos who want to protect our vote and SC is prohibiting us from doing that,” Museo Pambata founder Nina Lim-Yuson, one of the petitioners, said.

The other petitioners were former Pag-IBIG Fund chief executive officer Zorayda Amelia Alonzo, former human rights commissioner Paulynn Sicam, award-winning singer Celeste Legaspi-Gallardo, Ateneo de Manila University Press director Karina Bolasco and former social welfare secretary Corazon Soliman.

The group launched a fundraising campaign dubbed “Piso Para sa Laban ni Leni” on July 4.

The six-week online campaign has raised P6.5 million as of yesterday.

“The overwhelming response is short of P1 million from the P7.4 million to pay for the second tranche of Robredo’s counter-protest,” Lim-Yuson said.

“We cannot just accept the decision of the PET and ignore the passion with which the public joined this crusade. We will be filing a motion for reconsideration within the period allowed. We shall set forth arguments not previously raised and build on points already stated in the petition,” Pingki Bernabe, lawyer for the group, said.

The group also thanked the 25,000 supporters of Robredo.

 “We are overwhelmed by the support. We will continue to protect our right to vote and our country,” they said. – With Janvic Mateo, Helen Flores