Clark airport lobby group in anti-Mikey campaign

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — Political intrigues have started to hound presidential son Juan Miguel "Mikey" Arroyo who is running for Pam-panga vice governor.

Local media, in fact, has called Mikey a "mama’s boy." The term "mama," however, refers not to his mother, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, but stands for Movement Against Mikey Arroyo (MAMA), purportedly coined by the influential group Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement (PGKM).

But Mikey downplayed the criticisms against him, saying he expected them as part of a politician’s life.

He said that while the acronym MAMA specifically mentions his name, it was obviously meant to call the attention of his mother to PGKM’s demand for the full operation of the Clark international airport.

Mikey also vehemently denied reports in local media that he was seen drunk in a recent public gathering in Florida-blanca town. A report in Sun Star Pampanga claimed that Mikey even asked a female entertainer to bring him home that night.

"That’s absolutely untrue and malicious. I know that, as a member of the First Family, public scrutiny would be sharp on me so why would I do such a horrible thing?" he asked.

Mikey is the running mate of re-electionist Gov. Lito Lapid under the Lakas-NUCD banner. He is being challenged by movie actor Roi Vinzons, the running mate of gubernatorial aspirant Bacolor Mayor Ananias Canlas under the Buklod Kapampangan-Nationalist People’s Coalition.

Mikey, in an interview over local radio station dwRW-FM, downplayed the PGKM’s call to boycott him in the May elections. "It’s everybody’s right to support any candidate they want, including Roi Vinzons," he said.

The PGKM, in a statement last week, also called for the rejection of a 13-0 vote in favor of senatorial candidates of the administration’s People Power Coalition (PPC), as President Arroyo urged during her recent campaign sortie here.

"The President’s continued silence and inaction on the pressing need to make the Clark international airport operational has cast doubts on her capacity to run the country," the PGKM said.