Can’t recognize Lakas from KNP

The two main senatorial slates are complete. For the Gloria Arroyo-Noli de Castro tandem of the Lakas and Nationalist People’s Coalition are: Robert Barbers, Robert Jaworski, John Osmeña, Rodolfo Biazon, Richard Gordon, Mar Roxas, Parouk Husein, Orly Mercado, Bong Revilla, Lito Lapid, Pia Cayetano. Rabid oppositionist Miriam Santiago is hedging till Jan. 15, the last day to switch positions or parties. But she more or less has decided to run with the ruling coalition.

For the Fernando Poe Jr.-Loren Legarda teamup of the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino are: Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Carlos Padilla, Didagen Dilangalen, Juan Ponce Enrile, Ernesto Herrera, Fred Lim, Kit Tatad, Imee Marcos, Jamby Madrigal, Amina Rasul, Jinggoy Estrada, Ernesto Maceda.

Now, can you spot the difference between them?

Of course not, for they are both a mish-mash of old names and faces, mostly disgraced and highlighting what’s wrong with Philippine society. They represent no clear party lines or platforms. They consist of traditional politicians who only want their old position back or retain it at all costs.

Both profess to be reconciliation tickets. Reacting to a public clamor for national unity, the Lakas-NPC combine and the KNP picked up worn personalities from bitter, unresolved social upheavals-in an artificial potion for closure. They come from opposing forces of EDSA-1 and -2, thrown together as if in answer to the cry for justice. Trust them to resume their fights once they win – to make the Senate worse than it is now.

To begin with, the administration lineup is not really that of Lakas and NPC, but Lakas’s alone. Two NPC officers – Maceda and Madrigal – are with the opposition KNP. And that doesn’t clarify KNP’s politics either.

Pimentel, Padilla and Maceda represent one side of EDSA-1 against Enrile, Tatad and Marcos. Enrile and Tatad, had helped spark the people-power revolt against Marcos’s dictator-father Ferdinand. Pimentel, Padilla and Maceda were with the anti-martial law groups that supported them. Enrile and Tatad soon mended with the Marcoses, and the trio followed suit. To this day, there is no proper closure of the Marcos chapter of history – one that should have ended with the recovery of ill-gotten wealth and prosecution of thieves and torturers.

Fresher in people’s minds are personalities of EDSA-2. In the Lakas team, Barbers and Biazon, also Cayetano by virtue of her father’s leanings, were with the senators who wanted to expose evidence of Joseph Estrada’s alias bank accounts during his impeachment trial. Osmeña, Jaworski and Santiago were among JOE’S COHORTS, the 11 senators who suppressed the evidence against alias Jose Velarde. That fight has switched to the antigraft court which is trying Estrada for plunder. But it doesn’t mean the episode is over. Osmeña has yet to answer for the P1-million balato (gift) that he got from Estrada during a high-stakes mah-jong match – a violation of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees. And wasn’t Miriam, who professes to be an advocate of the rule of law, one of the main agitators of the unlawful May Day assault on Malacañang?

Same with Pimentel, Herrera and Rasul in the KNP. Herrera was one of two authors of the impeachment complaint against Estrada at the House of Representatives. Pimentel had resigned in protest as Senate President when the evidence was suppressed 11-10. Rasul was a leader of many anti-Estrada demonstrations. On the other hand, Dilangalen had tried to bar Herrera’s complaint by filibustering. Tatad and Enrile were among JOE’S COHORTS. Enrile and Jinggoy’s brother Jude were spotted among the agitators of the Malacañang assault.

In forming her Senate lineup, President Arroyo apparently aimed to dispirit Poe by snatching Santiago and Osmeña (also Raul Roco by wooing Biazon from the disintegrating Aksiyon Demokratiko). Meanwhile, by inserting Jinggoy and Maceda in his own slate at the last minute, Poe aimed to please Estrada. It would now be interesting how the presidential aspirants would explain their respective concoctions.

Poe’s camp had leaked the reason why Jinggoy was not in the initial lineup. Jinggoy, like his dad, is still facing charges for the heinous crime of plunder. And it would look ridiculously contrary to the Constitution’s ban on political dynasty for him to sit in the Senate with his mom, Sen. Loi Ejercito. But the void left by the Lakas pirating forced Poe to eat his words.

Poe’s biggest burden would be Legarda, however. "I need you," he pleaded for her to stay on as vice presidential partner despite grumblings from Estrada loyalists. A spokesman for Estrada’s Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino has warned that Legarda might suffer the same fate of Mercado in the 2001 senatorial election. Mercado, after resigning as Estrada’s defense chief and defecting to EDSA-2, ran months later for senator as then-PMP president. He couldn’t campaign with the opposition ticket, however, as Estrada loyalists kept booing him off the stage. They expectedly will do the same to Legarda, who they deride for having cried on Pimentel’s shoulder after losing the 11-10 vote against the Velarde account.

Enrile is girding to attack Arroyo on the issue of costly electricity due to the hated PPA (purchased power adjustment). In the process, he will hit the Lopez clan that controls both Meralco and ABS-CBN. Legarda’s fame is a product of ABS-CBN news. Avoiding this early being caught in a bind, she resolved to file, as soon as Congress reconvenes on Jan. 12, a bill to review the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, from which the PPA arose. But that may ring hollow, for the Lopezes have also asked for amendments to the EPIRA.

But at least Legarda could have an ally in the ticklish issue. Manolo Lopez, Meralco chairman, is the father of Beaver, husband of Estrada’s daughter Jackie. Legarda and Estrada may have found common ground.

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