New coalition to replace PPC soon

A new coalition will rise to replace the all-but- dismembered People Power Coalition (PPC) as the campaign machinery of administration candidates for the May 2004 elections.

Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) chairman Michael Defensor said yesterday that while the PPC has not officially disbanded, its composition has eroded greatly since the political parties of former education secretary Raul Roco, former executive secretary Renato de Villa and former Cebu governor Lito Osmeña bolted the coalition.

Roco, who founded Aksyon Demokratiko, has declared his bid for the presidency. De Villa founded the Reporma party, and Osmeña the Probinsya Muna Development Initiatives (Promdi). The three parties bolted the PPC in October and are backing Roco’s presidential bid.

Defensor is the newly designated spokesman for President Arroyo’s campaign in 2004.

He said the President is to file her certificate of candidacy on the last day, Jan. 2, under the new coalition, whose official title has yet to be determined.

"She is the sitting president and all she has to do is just file under the coalition," Defensor said.

"(PPC) is still the name of the coalition," he said, "but, I guess, in light of the bolting of Mr. Lito Osmeña and (former) Secretary De Villa, then it would take a different form and a different name — but it is still a coalition."

The PPC is composed of political groups still loyal to the President, led by Defensor’s Liberal Party (LP), the ruling Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD), the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), some remnants of Reporma and the so-called "Wednesday" group of independents at the Senate and House of Representatives.

Meanwhile, Defensor said in a press briefing that the selection process for administration candidates for vice president and the 12-member senatorial ticket will be undertaken through consultations with the various leagues of local government officials and different stakeholders in the PPC, including the civil society groups that supported Mrs. Arroyo in the EDSA II uprising that installed her at the helm of government in 2001.

Those aspiring to be the President’s running mate, Defensor said, include possible candidates whose names are being "floated," like Senate President Franklin Drilon and Trade and Industry Secretary Manuel Roxas II, both LP stalwarts; Senators Robert Barbers (Lakas), Noli de Castro (independent) Aquilino Pimentel (PDP-Laban), Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon and Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Bayani Fernando.

The administration’s candidates for its senatorial slate include the names of Cabinet members, members of the PPC and other "distinguished" personalities.

The criteria for the administration’s Senate slate, he said, are integrity of the candidate, winnability based on surveys, and performance and track record.

While Defensor refused to divulge the names of the administration’s senatorial aspirants, he did confirm that the names of Gina de Venecia, wife of Speaker Jose de Venecia, and Pia Cayetano, the late Sen. Renato Cayetano’s daughter, were among the names of women leaders coming out in the surveys and being processed by the different groups involved in the PPC’s candidate selection process.

"The announcement of candidates will be made by mid-December," he said.

In another development, the President designated STAR columnist and political science professor Alex Magno as her campaign’s deputy spokesman for economic matters.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye announced Magno’s designation yesterday during his daily press briefing at the Palace. Magno will be Defensor’s deputy, Bunye said. He does not belong to any political party, but is identified with civil society groups.

"The reason why we’re making Secretary Defensor available on a full-time basis is we realize the problem of media persons trying to get a quick reaction and Secretary Defensor promised to be available 24 hours," Bunye said.

He also said the administration will "have some other resource persons and one of them will be professor Alex Magno."

Bunye said Defensor will perform his additional duty as official campaign spokesman for the President separately from the administration’s other spokesmen, particularly the adviser on political affairs Hernani Braganza, liaison officer on political affairs Jose Rufino, and adviser on overseas Filipino communities Heherson Alvarez.

Braganza, Rufino and Alvarez are all card-carrying members of the Lakas-CMD. Braganza leads the Lakas-CMD youth arm, Rufino is the party’s executive director and Alvarez is the official party spokesman.

"We believe that the team that will be fielded is a coalition team and it’s not necessarily a full Lakas team. There will be some good people from other parties," Bunye said. "The message there is there that this is a coalition group."

Bunye also said the Palace will not take any action against any incumbent administration officials who may express support for a different presidential candidate in next year’s elections.

"In the first place, I’m not sure if the expression of good things about other candidates can already be equated (with) outright support for the candidacy of particular candidates," he said.

"We need some other indications of outright support. At this time, we’re not very sure yet just exactly where they stand," he said.

Bunye was reacting to reports that actor and presidential aspirant Fernando Poe Jr. has the support of presidential consultant on food security and former Tarlac congressman Jose Cojuangco.

His wife, former Tarlac governor and STAR columnist Margarita Cojuangco, is purportedly being eyed as a possible candidate on Poe’s senatorial slate.

"We’re not sure if they are actively supporting other candidates, so, these are rumors, loose talk and we don’t have any confirmation of that at this time." — Marichu Villanueva