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Sunday, December 14, 2003
Poe, Lacson met, talked on unification
MANILA -- Sen. Panfilo Lacson and movie actor Fernando Poe Jr. finally met Saturday and agreed to initiate unification and undertake steps to thresh out problems dividing the opposition.
The two agreed at a secret meeting Saturday that only one of them would stand against President Arroyo in the May 2004 elections.
In a statement, the two decided to meet again with a small group of opposition leaders that they would choose to "seek ways and means of unifying the opposition."
Reports say Lacson and Poe will defer the filing of their certificates of candidacies until the issue of clear and fair selection process is cleared.
Poe, a top movie star with no experience in politics, was named on Wednesday as the presidential candidate of a coalition of opposition parties, but Lacson has refused to drop his own candidacy, which threatens to split the opposition.
Lacson, a critic of Arroyo, said the next meetings would focus on creating a selection process to choose between him or Poe as the sole opposition candidate against Arroyo.
Lito Banayo, Lacson's political adviser, said in the next meeting the two will decide on a process mutually acceptable to them.
A recent survey put Poe ahead of all declared presidential candidates, followed by independent candidate former education secretary Raul Roco and then Arroyo and Lacson.
Meanwhile, a multi-sectoral coalition of Pangasinenses has come out openly in support of Poe, the province's most illustrious and popular son who was born in San Carlos, Pangasinan, and whose father was a true-blue Pangasinense.
The group, Cabaleyan nen Palaris Movement for FPJ (in honor of his first movie, Anak ni Palaris), promised at least one million solid votes for Poe, out of the province's 1.5 million voters.
"Despite President Arroyo whose mother, the late Dr. Evangelina Macaraeg-Macapagal was a native of Binalonan, the overwhelming majority of Pangasinenses will go for FPJ because they feel much closer affinity and connection with him than GMA," declared businessman Danilo Uy of Rosales town and a coordinator of the FPJ Movement in Pangasinan.
The group said the promised votes for FPJ will surpass the majority votes garnered by both former President Fidel Ramos and House Speaker Jose de Venecia at 600,000 and 700,000 votes respectively. The two are both native sons of Pangasinan.
Reliable sources said even incumbent Gov. Victor Agbayani and former Vice Governor Ranjit Ramos-Shahani have already sent feelers to openly declare their support for FPJ.
"The FPJ bandwagon is sweeping the province and President Arroyo will be in for a bigger surprise in Pangasinan, despite the open support of top Lakas leaders like League of Municipalities president and Binalonan Mayor Ramon Guico Jr.," said lawyer Bonifacio Sison of Bugallon town.
Sison said many Pangasinenses are dismayed over the President's treatment of Pangasinan and its leaders, including the relief of former Agrarian Reform and Press Secretary Hernani A. Braganza, Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Montemayor and just recently Deputy Director General Reynaldo Velasco, who was eased out from the Philippine National Police hierarchy and placed in the Philippine Center for Transnational Crime.
"It would take a lot of convincing and command votes to ensure solid victory for President Arroyo in Pangasinan alone," Jess Junio of Bayambang. He cited the "dismal number of times she visited the province, foremost of which is the infusion of much needed infrastructure projects sorely lacking during the last three years during her incumbency."
(December 14, 2003 issue)
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