Arroyo to Orly, Edong: Beware of PnM mates

Watch your back. Beware of your own party mates.

This was the unsolicited advice Makati Rep. Joker Arroyo gave yesterday to former Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado and former Executive Secretary Edgardo Angara.

The three are all senatorial candidates. Arroyo is in the administration People Power Coalition (PPC) ticket, while Angara heads ousted President Estrada’s Puwersa ng Masa slate. Mercado is an independent.

"Kung ako kay Orly at Edong, babantayan ko palagi ang mga kapartido ko. Yung mga ’yon ang mandaraya sa kanila (If I were Mercado and Angara, I will always watch my party mates. They will be the ones who will cheat them)," Arroyo told radio station dzBB.

He said "Pera (Puwersa) ng Masa" candidates will fight and junk each other in the homestretch of the election campaign "for the last four slots in the Magic 13."

Arroyo was referring to the second to ninth places in the winning circle of 13 which have been consistently occupied by PPC candidates in all Social Weather Stations (SWS) surveys.

In the latest SWS tracking poll, the administration coalition kept its commanding 8-5 lead over Puwersa.

Enrile, however, debunked the results and dared PPC bets to identify any place in the country and any public market in Metro Manila where they want to go to determine if they are really leading the surveys. — Jess Diaz, Efren Danao