PHNO-ANALYSIS: 'SUPER-POWER COALITION' AQUINO'S SINGLE-PARTY SCHEME

ANALYSIS: 'SUPER-POWER COALITION' AQUINO'S
SINGLE-PARTY SCHEME


[PHOTO -BEST SCENARIO FOR PRESIDENT AQUINO: San Juan
Representative JV Ejercito says, "With no real opposition coming forward to
challenge his administration in the 2013 midterm elections, should President
Benigno Aquino assemble a senatorial ticket that shall run unopposed?"]

MANILA, JULY 21, 2012
(INQUIRER) ANALYSIS By: Amando Doronila - The proposal of
the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) of Vice President Jejomar Binay and
deposed President Joseph Estrada to forge a "super coalition" with the Liberal
Party-led alliance to field a common powerhouse ticket in the 2013 Senate
election has been shot down even before it could take off.
It ran into heavy flak from the ruling LP, which blasted the UNA plan as a
scheme designed to preempt the initiative of forming the administration's Senate
slate ahead of the approval of President Aquino.
The controversy sparked by the UNA proposal exposed the cracks in the Aquino
administration stemming from tensions between the camp identified with the
President and that of Binay over policy issues and approaches to good
governance.

These tensions have come to the surface as the government
faces a confidence vote in the May 2013 mid-term election, with the results of
the Senate election expected to reflect public approval or disapproval of the
administration's performance the past two years.
Apparently without being aware of it, UNA is treading on dangerous political
ground when it proposed to partner with the LP-led alliance in fielding a common
"super" Senate slate to sew up the election in favor of a ticket behind and
handpicked by the President.
It is dangerous because, under the grand coalition scheme, UNA is making
itself complicit in a plot that, in effect, seeks single-party domination of
Congress, resurrecting the single-party domination by the Kilusang Bagong
Lipunan (KBL) of the one-chamber national assembly established by the
martial-law dictatorship of President Ferdinand Marcos.
A close examination of UNA's "super coalition" Senate ticket easily yields
the intention of reviving the single-party apparatus favored by authoritarian
regimes in "restored democracies" like ours after the overthrow of the Marcos
dictatorship in the 1986 People Power Revolution.
When San Juan City Rep. JV Ejercito proposed the "super coalition," he
explained that forming a "super senatorial slate" between the LP-led coalition
and UNA would be "the best scenario" for President Aquino, who has maintained
his popularity since 2010.
"It will be ideal since there is no clear-cut line between the opposition and
the administration."
This statement might be correct, but it suggests that UNA does not intend to
play the role of opposition under the Aquino regime but rather that of a junior
coalition partner facilitating the rigging-up of the Senate election results to
ensure the President's control of Congress, with the House already under control
of the LP-led coalition.
This type of partnership makes UNA a threat to legislative independence and,
for this reason, it should be emphatically rejected.
UNA had the effrontery to offer the LP coalition (joined by the Nacionalista
Party, the Nationalist People's Coalition and the Laban ng Demokratikong
Pilipino) a 7-5 or 8-4 ticket sharing, in the LP's favor, relative to UNA's
Partido ng Masang Pilipino and Partido Demokratikong Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan
(PDP-Laban).
The LP-led coalition is not snapping at the offer; Ejercito admits UNA is
"unwanted" by the LP coalition. The administration is not buying it.
Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, a senior LP leader, dismissed the proposed
"super coalition," pointing to "one condition that the President imposed on
those seeking to run under the administration's Senate slate: They can only
stand on the administration stage."
Abad explained that the party's position in drawing up its senatorial slate
would not allow it to adopt common candidates, a political arrangement which
allows candidates to run in both administration and opposition slates.
Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda had earlier said the super coalition
idea would not be possible because of "philosophical differences" with UNA.
He said there were fundamental differences being worked out among the LP, the
NP and the NPC. "There are some members of their slate who are in continuous
opposition to the policies of the Aquino administration," he said.
It has been reported that the President has not been happy with the lukewarm
support of Binay for the administration campaign to flush out corruption cases
involving the preceding government.
The 2013 mid-term election touches a raw nerve in the uneasy relations
between the President and Binay, exacerbated by opinion surveys showing Binay as
the preferred endorser of candidates for office in the next election.
The super coalition proposal received a fresh rebuff from House Speaker
Feliciano Belmonte when he said the ruling party was not "aggressively
recruiting" new members in the House, but those who share its vision and
commitment were welcome to join the majority coalition.
According to him, there are now 87 LP members out of 284 representatives, but
"we are not trying to recruit anybody." He added that "if they want to join and
are compatible with us, then okay."
The LP is one of the three parties in the House, together with the NP and
NPC, which make up the nucleus of the majority coalition in the House.
The thrust of the LP is to rebuild itself as the dominant party in both
houses, and this explains why the LP finds little use for super coalitions like
the one mooted by UNA. LP chair Sen. Franklin Drilon reflects the drive of the
LP to restore its former status as one of the main pillars of the pre-martial
law two-party system (together with the NP) when he said that the ruling party
would not admit "guest candidates" into its lineup.
These developments in rebuilding point to moves in the Aquino-Binay entente
to marginalize Binay by the 2013 Senate election.


Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All
rights reserved




PHILIPPINE
HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/phnotweet

This is the PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE (PHNO) Mailing List.

To stop receiving our news items, please send a blank e-mail addressed to: phno-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

Please visit our homepage at: http://www.newsflash.org/

(c) Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------------------------Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phno/

<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phno/join
(Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
phno-digest@yahoogroups.com
phno-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
phno-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/