LAKAS SAYS ALL POLITICAL PARTIES HAVE FUNDING PROBLEMS
MANILA, MARCH 20, 2010 (STAR) All political parties have problems with funding, according to the pro-administration Lakas-Kampi-CMD.In an interview, Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno, Lakas-Kampi – CMD vice chairman, no party taking part in the May 10 elections is without problems in campaign funds.
Puno, a political strategist, said in every election that he had joined, political parties have always complained of funding problems, adding that lakas should not be singled out on the funding issue.
Puno said the Liberal Party and Nacionalista Party should also be asked about their funds.
“Don’t ask their spokesman, ask their candidates and they will surely have their own problems,” he said in Filipino.
Puno said he was not trying to restrict the campaign funds given out to candidates.
“Times are hard, even the government has lower tax collections,” he added.
“Lower tax collections mean businessmen have less money, so we’re having difficulty soliciting contributions from the business sector.”
Meantime, Bishop Nereo Odchimar, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) president, told voters yesterday to be wary of empty promises of candidates. – Cecille Suerte Felipe, Evelyn Macairan
Supreme Court asked to reconsider ruling junking disqualification case vs GMA (The Philippine Star) Updated March 20, 2010 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) was asked yesterday to reconsider its ruling allowing President Arroyo’s bid for a congressional post in the May 10 polls.
Akbayan Party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros, who is running for senator under the opposition Liberal Party (LP), appealed the ruling of the Court that junked her petition to disqualify the President from the congressional race in the second district of Pampanga.
“It would be an uneven fight, with GMA capable of mobilizing the entire powers of the presidency to win the congressional seat. It is precisely this kind of abuse that the framers of the Constitution contemplated when they instituted the ban on re-election for an incumbent president,” Hontiveros said.
In its ruling last February, the high court affirmed the ruling of the second division of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) that junked the disqualification case against the President.
In a minute resolution, justices of the SC voted unanimously to rule that there was “no grave abuse of discretion” on the part of Comelec in allowing President Arroyo to run for representative.
There was no explanation of the merits of the case. – Edu Punay
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
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