NPC-Tarlac goes for Arroyo-Legarda

TARLAC CITY — Local leaders here of business tycoon Eduardo "Danding" Cojuangco Jr.’s political party are backing an all-woman tandem for the presidential and vice presidential elections on May 10.

Gov. Jose Yap, provincial chairman of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), told reporters last Saturday that he and his fellow local partymates are supporting the candidacies of President Arroyo and Sen. Loren Legarda.

He said the NPC’s local political ally, the Sama-Sama sa Tarlac (SST) party chaired by former governor Candido Guiam, reached the decision.

Mrs. Arroyo is the standard-bearer of the administration’s K-4 coalition, while Legarda is the vice presidential candidate of the opposition Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP).

Late last year, Legarda bolted the administration Lakas-CMD (Christian-Muslim Democrats) party and jumped to the KNP to be the running mate of actor Fernando Poe Jr.

Yap made the announcement shortly after Poe and Legarda, along with Sen. Tito Sotto and actor Eddie Garcia, paid him a courtesy call during their campaign sortie here last Saturday.

Cojuangco’s NPC remains to be the second biggest political party in the country next to Lakas-CMD.

Yap said Cojuangco gave local NPC leaders a "free hand" in choosing their candidates for president, vice president and senators.

He, however, did not say if NPC members elsewhere are similarly backing an Arroyo-Legarda tandem.

Early last year, Cojuangco was preparing to run for the presidency under a broad coalition of mainly NPC and Lakas-CMD members. He, however, failed to pick up in the surveys.

In explaining their support for an Arroyo-Legarda tandem, Yap refused to compare the qualifications of the President and Poe, nor that of Legarda and K-4 vice presidential bet Sen. Noli de Castro.

"Even before (Cojuangco abandoned his presidential ambition), we were already for GMA," he said.

Yap, however, said a major reason why they chose Legarda is that De Castro, if he loses in the vice presidential race, will still remain a senator until 2007.

Unlike De Castro, he said Legarda had to finish her six-year term in the Senate before seeking a higher post.

Yap also revealed that the local NPC will support a full senatorial slate, but this he said is still being finalized.