Cojuangco clarifies: NPC only in working partnership with LP

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines  — Tarlac Rep. Henry Cojuangco, to avoid confusion, clarified that there is no coalition between the Nationalist People’s Coalition and the Liberal Party but only a partnership agreement between the two.

“We would like to clarify that this is not a coalition but a partnership agreement, in support of the 16-point agenda of the president (Aquino),” he told the media last Saturday.

The difference between a coalition and a partnership agreement is that the coalition is registered in the Commission on Elections, he explained, adding that they are expected to sign the pact next week or just before the filing of the certificates of candidacy from October 1 to 5.

Former Ambassador Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr., founder and chairman emeritus of NPC, in what was considered the first press conference he held in recent years, at a hotel in Bacolod Friday, also said: “We are not coalescing with any party. We are cooperating with the president.”

Danding, uncle of the president, said, “We have an agreement with the president. We worked for him to get elected and I said there is no reason why we should not be with him until the end of his term.” He added that, in his personal assessment, the president is “doing very well.”

The NPC is committed to support the common candidates of LP-NPC coalition, said Danding who was in Bacolod over the weekend to settle the split of Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. and Vice Governor Genaro Alvarez Jr., who are both NPC members and are clashing for the gubernatorial post next year.

Danding further witnessed the induction on Saturday, by Rep. Cojuangco, of some 200 new NPC members from more than 20 towns and cities of Negros Occidental. The event was witnessed by NPC chairman Frisco San Juan, NPC secretary general Mark Leandro Mendoza and other NPC top officials.

Danding and the rest of the NPC leaders also endorsed Alvarez as the party’s official gubernatorial candidate in 2013, and former San Carlos City mayor Eugenio Jose Lacson for the vice gubernatorial post.

Rep. Cojuangco said the NPC had further endorsed the candidacies of Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia as the party’s congressional candidate next year, and Bacolod Vice Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson for mayor.  (FREEMAN)