LACSON SPOKE ON RP POLITICS / BONGBONG WISHES RP TO BASK AGAIN IN GLORY
MANILA, NOVEMBER 15, 2009 (STAR) Sen. Panfilo Lacson said yesterday the political situation in the country remains fluid and some “phenomena” beyond the control of candidates could keep changing the country’s political landscape.Lacson, who withdrew his bid for president, said he had not been positioning himself to be a vice presidential bet because an offer should come from a presidential wannabe.
“In the absence of any offer, you cannot make plans,” Lacson said over radio station dwIZ.
While Sen. Francis Escudero did mention a possible tandem with him when the young senator was still the standard-bearer of the Nationalist People’s Coalition, Lacson said he was not into talks with anybody at the moment.
If he would not run, Lacson said he would support the candidacies of Escudero, Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III or even the administration’s bet, Gilberto Teodoro because of their clean records.
But asked if it might be too late for him to join the race, Lacson said, “One single event can completely change the political landscape.”
“We never heard of Noynoy before his mother (former President Corazon Aquino) passed away. This one event changed the political landscape of the country. We had been talking about it, Mar, Noynoy and Chiz (referring to Sen. Manuel Roxas II, Aquino and Escudero) in the lounge or session hall, there are phenomena that would be hard to explain and that’s where we could realize that being president or vice president is destiny,” Lacson said.
“Who would predict Mar will be a VP candidate when he had been groomed to be the Liberal Party’s standard-bearer all along? Who could have said Chiz would lose a party? Who could have said (Sen.) Loren (Legarda) is now being touted as the running mate of (Sen. Manuel) Villar? And what about the entry of (actor Edu) Manzano (as Teodoro’s running mate)? “ Lacson said.
Legarda said she would make an announcement on her platform-based alliance at the proper time.
“Many things happen that can shock you, and in a day the political situation has changed. So many things can happen that no one can predict, so we just have to study very well who we will support,” Lacson said.
He said the country’s fate was at stake and people could not afford to choose the wrong leader.
He said people should not be blinded by those offering help to save them from hunger in a day or bring them home from abroad.
The senator said he was quite clear about the candidates that he would not support.
“Villar should be the last person to dare the other presidentiables to have character and integrity because he has the least or none of either one or both. He’s no different from (President Arroyo). They both can say things which they are not. Very dangerous,” Lacson said.
He stressed that he would not support anybody who was accused of committing anomalies in government. – Aurea Calica
Bongbong Marcos wants RP glory during father's time revived By Delon Porcalla (The Philippine Star) Updated November 15, 2009 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines - If he could have his way, Ilocos Norte Rep. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. wants the Philippines to bask in glory just like when his father, the late President Ferdinand Marcos, was still running the country.
Marcos, who will be making another run for the Senate next year elections (he lost in the May 1995 polls), made this promise during the birthday celebration of his older sister Imee Thursday night at their ancestral home in San Juan.
He hinted, although very vaguely, that Filipinos may have committed a mistake in ousting his father in February 1986, forcing the family into exile in the US while Cory Aquino, wife of slain opposition Sen. Ninoy Aquino, was catapulted to the presidency.
“I believe that when we look at our country, and we see our country’s recent history, we are driven to the conclusion that in the previous years, maybe we have taken a wrong turn in our history and are now facing a historical dead-end,” he told the guests.
Marcos, who was formerly governor of Ilocos Norte, said this is also partly the reason why he wanted to run for senator, because “we need to find a way out of this (crisis).”
The House deputy minority leader also underscored the need for a new brand of politics, where the “only way” to replace traditional politicians “is to replace the politics as we see it now.”
It is about time, according to him, that the government deliver on its promise of success to hard-working Filipinos, who have been mired in poverty for a very long time.
“This is a promise that we have made to the Filipino people a long, long time ago. And we have continued to make this promise for a very long time since. We saw a semblance of that fulfillment perhaps in my father’s time, but we have failed our country since,” Marcos said.
“We must replace the politics of inertia with politics of leadership. We must replace the politics of ordinary and moribund ideas with the politics of vision. These are the things that I believe we can do in the future,” he added.
Among those who attended the birthday party were Marcos’ mother former first lady Imelda Marcos, his wife Liza Araneta, sister Irene and husband Greggy Araneta, and cousin Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez, nephew of Imelda.
Senator Manny Villar, standard-bearer of the Nacionalista Party where Marcos has been included in the Senate slate, came. So did Senator Loren Legarda, a vice presidential candidate under the Nationalist People’s Coalition. But the two did not sit beside each other.
Birthday celebrant Imee, Bongbong’s predecessor in the Ilocos Norte district, denied she had any political plans, but said she will just be helping her brother as PR and media coordinator when he runs for senator in May 2010.
Meantime, a federal appeals court said in an opinion issued Friday that a US District judge’s lax oversight of more than $30 million tied to the late President Marcos is “curious.”
A three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals ordered that a new judge give a fresh accounting of the $33.8 million previously entrusted to Los Angeles-based US District Judge Manuel Real. – With AP
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2009 by
PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All rights reserved