MANILA - Seven opposition candidates were among 10 new senators named by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) last night, a development likely to bring trouble to President Arroyo’s last three years in power.
The victory ensures the opposition’s continuing dominance in the 24-seat Senate, a traditional opposition bastion that could block the passage of key bills, including the annual government budget, and initiate corruption investigations.
Most of the opposition senators are Arroyo critics, who have demanded her resignation over corruption allegations and accusations that she rigged the 2004 presidential elections with the help of loyal generals and an election commissioner.
Shortly before the proclamation, the Comelec also declared a failure of elections in Maguindanao Province, where 12 senatorial candidates allied with Arroyo won. There were allegations that many of the area’s more than 300,000 voters were coerced not to cast their votes.
“One of my purposes is to expose elections fraud,” opposition Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano said, adding he would work to strengthen democratic institutions he has said were threatened by Arroyo’s “dictatorial” tendencies.
Olive branch
Sen. Edgardo Angara, one of two Arroyo-supported candidates who made it last May 14, said he was praying “that we would come as a working Senate, and not one perennially embroiled in speeches and in a war of words.”
The other administration ally, reelected Sen. Joker Arroyo, failed to attend last night’s proclamation.
The winners of the two remaining contested seats will be announced later, after final results are tallied from the south, where both the opposition and administration alleged vote-rigging.
The rest of the Senate seats belong to mostly opposition members whose terms expire in 2010.
One pro-administration and two opposition candidates are still vying for the 11th and 12th slots. The Comelec said votes still being hand-counted could affect the outcome because of the small margin.
Trouble ahead?
Among the winners were Panfilo Lacson, a former national police chief, who has accused Arroyo and her husband of illegally amassing wealth. Cayetano formerly belonged to the House of Representatives, where he had led two failed impeachment bids against Arroyo.
Analysts said the May 14 elections did little to ease President Arroyo’s political troubles.
“I think it’s going to be a big headache for the President,” political analyst Jun Salipsip told ABS-CBN television, referring to opposition senators who could stymie even her economic bills.
The economy has made impressive gains under Arroyo, a US-educated economist.
While the opposition will retain its majority in the Senate, Arroyo’s allies say they won most of the 220 districts in 81 provinces represented in the House of Representatives.
That means the opposition will not be able to muster enough House votes to pass a third impeachment complaint against Arroyo on allegations of corruption and vote-rigging. Two earlier attempts were blocked by Arroyo’s allies.
“We just cannot see the possibility of an impeachment challenge succeeding,” House Speaker Jose de Venecia told reporters.
House covered
He said that Arroyo’s ruling coalition strengthened its grip in the House by winning between 88 and 90 percent of the total congressional districts.
“I think the President is safe in expanding and enlarging the economic gains that we have achieved so far,” he said.
The opposition-dominated Senate, however, could stall approval of the budget, as it did in the last two years, and hinder other Arroyo-endorsed measures, including ratification of a recently signed defense accord that would allow large-scale war exercises between Australia and the Philippines.
Tabulation of the results from at least four southern provinces has been marred by allegations that ballots were “manufactured” to show administration candidates winning.
Topping the list is Loren Legarda, a former senator, with 16.88 million votes and Francis Escudero, a former congressmen who also led two failed bids to impeach Arroyo over allegations of corruption and electoral fraud.
Appeal
Also returning to the Senate is Gregorio Honasan, a former army colonel who led several bloody coup attempts in the late 1980s. He is also accused of helping launch a rebellion by junior officers against Arroyo in 2003, and went into hiding when he was implicated in another failed coup in February last year.
Honasan was arrested in November, but was allowed to post bail in April, during which he managed to catch the last leg of his campaign.
He said he was unsure whether he would join the opposition in the new Senate. “I have to find out first what the vision of this new majority bloc is. If it’s consistent with my principles then I’d probably join them,” he said.
Arroyo campaign spokesman Reli German told Agence France Presse the new Senate would likely make it harder for Arroyo to pass some key legislation, although he did not elaborate.
“It just might frustrate some legislative programs, but eventually we believe that the elected senators will go beyond their personal agendas and sentiments against President Arroyo,” German said. (AP/AFP)
