‘Backstabbing’ by opposition colleagues forced Angara to switch sides

Feeling abandoned and pained by "backstabbing’’ from his colleagues in the opposition, Sen. Edgardo Angara said he had enough, and decided to join the administration.

Angara, for the first time, spoke of his frustration with the United Opposition and of his decision to join the administration’s Team Unity at the national executive council of the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino last Friday.

"The media asked me, ‘why did you join the administration, when you were identified for a long time as the leader of the opposition? I told them that the so-called opposition, the UNO, has been releasing and announcing its slate as early as October and I was surprised that I was not even in one of them,’’ Angara said.

Angara again fired salvos against Sen. Panfilo Lacson, whom he accused of dividing the opposition in the 2004 presidential polls and in the coming May polls.

"Ironically those people who are opposing me, are the ones who were against FPJ (Fernando Poe Jr.) and who sabotaged our campaign. And now they are on the other side of the derby, even front seat, in that senatorial ticket,’’ Angara said.

He recalled that the opposition had nowhere to go in 2004 until he pushed for Poe’s candidacy with the help of former President Joseph Estrada and worked for uniting the opposition under the Kilusan ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP).

Angara claimed that Poe could have been president had he not been cheated. "I think if we were not cheated, FPJ would have been president today,’’ Angara said.

Angara said he felt unhappy about being sidestepped by his former colleagues when they were building up a senatorial slate, considering his role in resurrecting the opposition "from the dead.’’

"Not that I am asking for one, nor I am lobbying for one, but I thought that having led this opposition in 1992, during the time of President Ramos and having succeeded in maintaining that the opposition remains alive in this country, at the very least, when they start considering names in the senatorial ticket, I think my name should have been one of them,’’ Angara said.

He pointed out that he was first invited to join the administration last year but it was only last week that he accepted the offer, after consulting his partymates.

At the same forum, Angara echoed the administration’s call for unity as he announced that the LDP would be working with the theme, "Unity and Reconciliation’’ in the campaign.

He said that if elected, he would work for reforms in key areas, particularly education, health and food security.

Angara said LDP remains the most organized party in the country, ready to slug it out with other parties claiming to represent the opposition. He said the LDP has chapters in 80 percent of the 1,500 municipalities and 95 percent in 80 provinces across the country.

"We are even the dominant political opposition accredited by the Comelec. How come we were not included in the slate of the opposition?’’ Angara asked.

"So it is quite perplexing. But never mind, let the analysts examine the motives of some of those who excluded our party,’’ Angara said.