GOAL: SPEAKER GLORIA ARROYO TO SPEARHEAD CON-ASS

Mikey moves to allow mom’s bid for House

By Charlie V. Manalo

06/14/2009

The plot unravels.

Preparations are under way for President Arroyo’s plan to seek a congressional seat in the Second District of Pampanga next year by having his son Rep. Mikey Arroyo build a house in the province’s First District where he would likely seek election.

According to a Tribune source, President Arroyo is indeed bent on running for the House of Representatives in 2010 as evidenced by her frequent visit to her hometown of Lubao, Pampanga lately as attested to by Pampanga Gov. Ed Panlilio. Out of the 16 visits Arroyo made to Pampanga this year, 14 were to Lubao which is in the Second District of Pampanga.

“Rep. Mikey had constructed his house in Mabalacat which is in the first District of Pampanga,” the source told the Tribune. “President Arroyo will then run in the second district and aspire for speakership in preparation for the constituent assembly (con-ass) in the 15th Congress.”

However, the plan is not without any collateral damage, said the source as the move will have to sacrifice three administration allies: Rep. Carmelo Lazatin of the First District of Pampanga, Angeles City Mayor Bluboy Nepomuceno and Presidential Adviser Ed Pamintuan.

The source said Lazatin, who is a sure bet for reelection as congressman, will instead run for mayor of Angeles City against

Nepumuceno and Pamintuan, who also had expressed his intention to run for mayor of Angeles.

The President’s plan to seek a congressional seat was validated by no less than a Palace official, Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman.

A Palace source, meanwhile, said President Arroyo held what appeared to be an emergency cabinet meeting last night after the holding of the vin d’ honorn in celebration of Independence Day held Friday at the Palace.

Asked what the emergency meeting was about, Press Secretary Serge Remonde said the President wanted to talk to Cabinet members about the comprehensive livelihood and emergency employment program (CLEEP).

Also discussed was the economic stimulus package worth P330 billion, Remonde said. “The P330 billion stimulus package is working but with some problem in certain efforts,” Remonde said.

Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño said he had reasons to believe Mrs. Arroyo had “lost her mind.”

“The mere idea of GMA (Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) running for Congress after a nine-year presidency and with her two sons and two in-laws already in the House reveal such a shameless and obscene lust for power it makes me puke,” Casiño said.

“I’m seriously worried that in her desperation to remain in power or protect herself, she has cracked and lost her mind,” the militant solon added.

During the Independence Day celebration in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Agrarian Reform Secretary Nasser Pangandaman was quoted as saying that Mrs. Arroyo will definitely step down in 2010 and run for Congress in her home province of Pampanga.

The Cabinet Secretary also bared Mrs. Arroyo had always been telling those close to her about her plans to run for congressional seat in Pampanga.

Pangandaman, realizing that he may have told reporters too much, issued a denial yesterday on his earlier statement about Mrs. Arroyo’s bid for a House seat when she steps down as president next year.

The plan for a House run was obviously an option lined up in case massive protests, which is now developing, delays the con-ass plan and have it overtaken by the elections next year.

The Church, in its ambiguous stand on Charter change, for instance, said it is only opposed to having the Constitution amended prior to the elections next year.

Pangandaman claimed he was quoted “out of context” on reports quoting him as saying that Mrs. Arroyo will definitely step down in 2010 and run for a congressional seat for Pampanga.

“What I said in an ambush interview was that the President will definitely step down when her term ends to allay fears of the opposition she is clinging to her post,” Pangandaman said.

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) secretary was Mrs. Arroyo’s representative in the 111th Independence Day celebration in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) last Friday.

“I did not categorically say that President GMA is seeking a congressional seat,” Pangandaman said. “What I told the reporters was that the President will step down in 2010 and that elections will be held.”

Pangandaman added Mrs. Arroyo was telling her allies in the House of Representatives not to push through with their Charter change efforts.

“She was telling her allies to have the constituent assembly after the 2010 elections,” Pangamdaman claimed.

Pangandaman said while Mrs. Arroyo is very much qualified to seek a congressional seat, he did not say that she had told her allies about it.

“What she has been telling us was that the 2010 elections will be held and that she has no intentions of staying in Malacanang,” Pangamdaman said.

Mrs. Arroyo’s allies ganged up on Pangandaman fo disclosing Mrs. Arroyo’s plan saying it would be better to hear it straight from the chief executive’s mouth rather than rely on statements of a Cabinet official who is unauthorized to speak on the matter.

“I think that is pure speculation on Sec. Pangandaman’s part, as only President Arroyo knows what she wants to do. Whether she runs or not, no one can rightfully say the rationale behind it as I don’t think they are privy to her thoughts. I don’t think he (Pangandaman) is authorized to speak on her (President Arroyo’s) behalf,” Zambales Rep. Ma. Milagros Magsaysay said.

Pangandaman, however, was not the first person close to Mrs. Arroyo to have divulged her plans to seek a House seat.

In a recent television interview, former justice secretary now chief legal counsel of Mrs. Arroyo Raul Gonzalez also expressed belief that she will run for a parliamentary seat in Pampanga.

“I will not be surprised if the President will run as member of parliament,” Gonzalez said.

He added threats by the current crop of her possible successor that they will support efforts to file graft and corruption raps against Mrs. Arroyo after she loses her presidential immunity on June 30, 2010 are motivating Mrs. Arroyo’s to stay in public office.

Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin, however, said Pangandaman’s denial of his statement gives rise to the belief that the allegations of a House run for Mrs. Arroyo were nothing but speculations.

“It would be better to hear it from the horse’s mouth as we have heard a lot of denials,” she said.

Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante also said it was best that the statement came from President Arroyo herself.

“The best person to ask is President Arroyo. Any statement coming from her deputies is speculation,” he said.

Zambales Rep. Ma. Milagros Magsaysay, another Arroyo ally, said people have been putting too much meaning in the President’s sorties in Pampanga, saying her trips to her home province is but part of her governance.

“No one has the right to question her presence in Pampanga as she is free to decide where she wants to spend her time as she was merely performing her duty. With her Cabinet officials talking too much, they are unwittingly creating a scenario which might be misinterpreted by others,” she explained.

Cotabato Rep. Emmylou Talino-Mendoza also said that President Arroyo’s presence in Pampanga is part of her job as Chief Executive.

For Baguio City Rep. Maurico Domogan, it was unlikely that President Arroyo will run for a seat in the House of Representatives.

“I don’t think that will happen (President Arroyo running for Congress). She won’t go down from President to congresswoman,” he said.

Meanwhile, the left-leaning fisherfolk alliance Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) is appealing to the President’s province mates to frustrate her alleged plan to run for Congress in 2010.

“We strongly appeal to the people of Pampanga to rise above the occasion and frustrate this sinister agenda and cruel intention of Mrs. Arroyo. We are very optimistic the Kapampangans will not allow themselves to be used by President Arroyo for her political survival and daring escape from justice and accountability via the 2010 polls,” Pamalakaya national chairman Fernando Hicap said in a press statement.

“From the provincial down the barangay levels, the decent and rational thinking Cabalens will lead the crusaders of politics of change, patriotism and good governance to rally the people against Mrs. Arroyo’s gameplan to perpetual immunity and immoral stay in power,” the Pamalakaya leader added.

Hicap said Arroyo’s stint to run in Congress and later seeks the premiership or even the speakership of the House of Representatives must be frustrated and it’s the historical mission of the Filipino people in general and the people of Pampanga in particular.

“In 2010, the Filipino people will attend the premier night of Mrs. Arroyo’s trial for crimes against the people and we would thank the Kapampangans for their decisive role in sending Mrs. Arroyo to trial ,” he said.

Hicap said Pangandaman’s announcement on Arroyo’s plans to run for Congress to represent the province of Pampanga does not negate either another Palace statement saying that President Arroyo will step down in 2010.

“She may leave the presidency, but she will not leave corridors of power. Mrs.. Arroyo is gunning for a congressional seat in 2010 and will train her sights on the premiership of the country if Charter Change succeeds or the speakership of the House of Representatives to perpetuate herself to power and stop her millennium trial for political crimes and high crimes of corruption,” said Hicap. Riza Recio

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