A few weeks after calling a joint press conference to announce that they were resigning as heads of Lakas and Kampi to hasten the merger of the two pro-Arroyo parties, Lakas president Speaker Prospero Nogales Jr. and Kampi president Rep. Luis Villafuerte Jr. are at it again.
After making it appear that they stand as one in both the pursuit of Charter change (cha-cha) and in the preparations for the 2010 presidential and national elections, Nograles and Villafuerte clashed anew on how to pursue cha-cha, raising doubts on the realization of the proposed Lakas-Kampi merger, which former Speaker Jose de Venecia has called “the party of snakes and lizards.”
Villafuerte, in a press conference, said he has withdrawn support for all initiatives to amend the Constitution, saying these are just “futile exercises.” At the same time, he assailed Nograles for his “mindless, directionless approach” to the issue. He said all proposals aimed at rewriting the Charter – constituent assembly, constitutional convention, or through legislation – should be put to rest because there was no more time for it.
In a separate news conference, Nograles acknowledged that Villafuerte’s move would affect Charter change initiatives in the House but said he did not want to engage Villafuerte in a debate. “We have a difference in opinion… He is entitled to his own opinion,” he said.
While the renewed hostilities between the two bitter political protagonists would greatly impact administration moves to push amendments to the 1987 Constitution, the bigger loser is Arroyo’s efforts to present a unified challenge to the opposition in the 2010 elections.
Arroyo can easily make these protagonists and their followers toe the line with regards to cha-cha by using the pork barrel both as carrot and stick, but it would be much more difficult to keep these ambitious politicians together in 2010. After all, both parties were born out of betrayal and ambition – the Lakas formed by then Defense Secretary Fidel Ramos in betraying then LDP nominee Speaker Ramon Mitra, and the Kampi by then Sen. Gloria Arroyo to push her presidential ambition – so why shouldn’t we expect these “snakes and lizards” to betray one another again on the way to 2010?
For one, Lakas would insist on nominating its own candidates for president, vice president and senators. And so would Kampi. Lakas would reason out that it’s the bigger and older party, and Kampi would say it is the incumbent president’s own party.
For all the talks about merging the two pro-Arroyo parties, no formal merger has yet been realized, no single leadership has been chosen, and it’s less than a year from the May elections. Cracks are beginning to show in the administration coalition’s armor, and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo doesn’t seem worried. In fact, the administration parties don’t seem too eager to choose their anointed presidential candidate at this time.
Despite the apparent strength and popularity of the opposition’s presidential aspirants, all the administration camp has been offering as possible candidates are Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro and MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando, who are both at the bottom of surveys, with the possibility of naming popular Vice President Noli de Castro. But even De Castro is mentioned just in passing.
This nonchalance towards the 2010 elections seem to point to one thing – that Arroyo is confident of staying in power beyond 2010.
The credibility of Arroyo and her allies has reached rock bottom that even the resumed hostility between Nograles and Villafuerte has been dismissed as a ruse by at least two party-list representatives.
Akbayan party-list Rep. Walden Bello said the Villafuerte-Nograles feud could just be an administration ruse to sow confusion and spring a surprise by pushing for an extension of the President’s term, which expires next year, through Charter change. Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros Baraquel described the feud as a “power play on who will bring home the bacon that is Cha-cha to GMA.”
So, should we be lulled into believing that, as Villafuerte said, the cha-cha is dead? I don’t think so. Until I see a new president in Malacanang in July 2010 holding the reins of government – and not a prime minister in Parliament or an extended President cum dictator – I can never believe that Arroyo has given up on cha-cha.
Malacanang’s silence a day after Villafuerte’s tirade against Nograles is just too deafening.