Junking in Makati polls belittled

The Jojo Binay-led Performance Team in Makati brushed off yesterday the decision of the local Lakas-NUCD to junk administration candidates Joker Arroyo and Serge Osmeña III for attending the proclamation rally of the Performance Team last week.

"Joker Arroyo and Serge Osmeña will win big in Makati despite the Lakas-NUCD’s decision not to support them. Maybe they’re even better off being junked by Lakas in Makati," Nestor Mercado, Binay’s running mate and president of the Makati PDP-Laban, said.

Aside from Arroyo and Osmeña, the Binay-Mercado team is also supporting administration bet Franklin Drilon.

In belittling the Lakas announcement to drop its support for Arroyo and Osmeña, Mercado said that as far as Makati politics is concerned, Lakas-NUCD "has no significant political clout."

"We pity the other senatorial candidates of the People Power Coalition. The May 14 senatorial election is predicted to be a close one, and in a close fight, the over 300,000 votes from Makati will be crucial for any senatorial candidate," he said.

Arroyo, who is part of the administration coalition as a candidate of Aksyon Demokratiko, served as Makati congressman for three terms, while Osmeña is representing PDP-Laban in the PPC.

The party decried the dictatorial tendency of Lakas, saying that as part of a coalition, it has no authority to impose its will on its other coalition partners.

"Lakas is courting the ire of its other coalition partners. But it only proves what we have been saying from the start that Lakas merely wants to grab power for itself, at the expense of harmony within the coalition, and democratic principles," Mercado said.