Villarroyo’s slip shows with boast on Admin support – Gascon

Nacionalista presidential candidate Manuel Villar unwittingly confirmed his “unholy alliance” with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo with his pompous announcement that more administration allies would join him as the May 10 elections near.

Liberal Party Director General Chito Gascon today said Villarroyo’s statement that he expects more Lakas-Kamp-CMD members to join forces with his NP eventually validates the widely-held belief that he is Mrs. Arroyo’s not-so-secret candidate in the May 10 elections.

“Ang sabi nga, nahuhuli ang isda sa kanyang bibig, kaya heto at  huling-huli ngayon si Villarroyo na umaaming sa kanya pupunta ang pwersa ni Gloria (As the saying goes, you hook the fish in his mouth, and here we have Villarroyo himself confirming that Gloria’s forces will be joining him soon),” Gascon said.

Gascon said this also adds credence to reports that the President’s trusted political operators, Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno and Presidential Political Adviser Prospero Pichay Jr. are abandoning the administration’s avowed candidate, former Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, and joining the Villarroyo wagon instead.

“Birds of the same color flock together, and we see now the Arroyo Administration moving its forces to align with someone they think has a better chance of winning and defending their interests after the May elections,” the LP official said.

Gascon noted that aside from the Puno-Pichay report, other political developments confirm Villarroyo’s not-so-secret deal with the administration, despite his camp’s vehement denials.

He pointed at the NP’s bogus coalition with the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), Villar’s unusual silence on issues especially concerning massive graft and corruption under her eight-year rule that have been hurled against Mrs. Arroyo and the report of a secret meeting between Villarroyo and President Arroyo’s husband, First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, at the house of trusted political lieutenant Mike Defensor to seal an agreement to make Mrs. Arroyo the new Speaker of the House of Representatives if Villarroyo becomes President.

Villarroyo’s refusal to commit to pursue charges against Mrs. Arroyo and her officials involved in corruption during her eight-year presidency has been accepted by many Filipinos as in keeping with his own character as a political leader, particularly as he himself had been accused of using his position as then Senate President to divert the original C5 road plan to benefit his family’s real estate properties.

Like President Arroyo’s practice of merely shrugging off corruption charges against her and her administration instead of answering them, Villarroyo has refused to answer the charges that he benefited from the C5 Road Extension project and he abused his own power to do so.

“Mahirap talagang itago ang ganitong mga sikreto. Matalino ang botanteng Pilipino. Hindi sila maloloko ng mga nagkukunwaring oposisyon (It’s really hard to keep secrets like this. The Filipino voters are intelligent. They will not be fooled by those masquerading as oppositionists),” Gascon said.