Super-coalition trial balloon
-A A +AMonday, July 16, 2012
THE proposal to create a super-coalition between the Liberal Party and the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) shouldn’t cause local partisans with a moist eye on an elective position in 2013 to lose sleep or hair. It is a trial balloon that is burdened by so many complications to be able to even take off.
Even if it does see fruition, the proposal has a limited application. What San Juan City Rep. JV Ejercito envisions is a common senatorial ticket that will run unopposed. Those running for local offices will not be covered.
It will not wash. The UNA’s ticket is more or less already set. Assuming that the party gets a maximum of six slots in the super coalition’s unified ticket, how will it deal with the others who cannot be accommodated?
Moreover, as it is, the LP is already having trouble trying to figure out how many slots to reserve for its original members and how many to give to its new partners, the Nacionalista Party (NP) and the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC). With the entry of the UNA, the pie can only get smaller.
The LP secretary general, Cavite Rep. Joseph E. A. Abaya, saw the problem right away, saying that it entailed their having to “further strip down the list,” which would require convincing potential candidates not to run even if they are qualified to do so.
Indeed, the proposal is so ill-conceived I doubt if Ejercito even consulted his father, former president Erap Estrada before he made it public. Estrada is one of the three pillars of the UNA, the others being Vice President Jejomar Binay and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile.
Binay and Enrile should distance themselves from Ejercito’s plan, Binay, in particular, because it could boomerang on him since it was he who personally recruited some of the would-be UNA senatorial candidates.
The coalition among the LP, the NP and the NPC is different because none of them has completed assembling its senatorial slate. It is easier for them to come up with a common ticket.
However, a potential problem that the three parties should resolve early is how to address conflicts in the local level. In case, there are candidates coming from the LP, the NP and the NPC for the same position, who will the coalition bless as its official candidate?
This is the question that seems to bug the original LP members in Cebu’s first congressional district. If the LP, NP, NPC alliance pushes through, what will happen to them? Will Rep. Eduardo Gullas not gain unfair advantage over them?
I think the answer will depend on who needs the other more. Does Gullas need the LP more than the LP needs him? Whose chances of carrying the district will become brighter if the two camps unite: that of Junjun Davide for governor or Gullas for Talisay city mayor and Samsam Gullas for congressman? If the elections are about winning, an honest assessment is in order.
***
A husband was caught by his wife inside a KTV bar, a pretty guest relations officer (GRO) snugly perched on his lap. “Aha,” the wife began to create a scene. “Ssshh,” he hushed her. “I can explain this but not here. Follow me to the car.”
As the wife entered the car, he got the rosary from his rear view mirror, made the sign of the cross and looking up, said: “Thank you, Lord. I have been praying for this time, for my wife to catch me so I can quit my vice.”
Know what reminded me of the joke? The wife of an alleged robbery mastermind telling the police she was glad she was finally arrested because she was tired hiding. To use the language of the young, lol.
Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on July 17, 2012.
Opinion
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