Kabataan PL WITH Sanlakas-Youth UNDER jv ejercito..

February 1, 2007

By Tarra Quismundo
Inquirer
Last updated 02:29am (Mla time) 02/01/2007

MANILA, Philippines — After months of negotiations and deliberations, the United Opposition (UNO) yesterday announced "the end of the Third Force" with the near completion of its list of senatorial candidates for the May 14 elections.

UNO officials announced eight of the 12 candidates in a press conference at past 1 p.m., leaving the rest of the slots to "coalition partners."

The lineup is a slightly revised version of the roster earlier released by the opposition's recognized leader, ousted President Joseph Estrada.

"This is the only opposition slate … In which case, there's no room for a Third Force. With this announcement, we are ending the issue of the Third Force," Makati Mayor and UNO president Jejomar Binay said in reference to the supposed middling senatorial lineup being formed by other groups.

Loren Legarda, a former senator and an independent candidate, is the only woman in the UNO slate composed of aspiring returnees to the Senate, graduates of the House of Representatives, and scions of politicians.

Also in the slate is Estrada's son, San Juan Mayor Jose Victor Ejercito, who said his senatorial candidacy was "the nation's clamor."

But barely two hours earlier at the signing of a youth covenant at the Bahay ng Alumni building in the University of the Philippines campus, where he was asked to seek a Senate seat, Ejercito told the Inquirer: "I am elated and honored by this endorsement. However, I have not decided yet if I will run for the Senate."

UNO spokesperson Ernesto Maceda said the other four candidates would soon be announced by partners in the Senate. (Officials said there were four sure candidates but refused to name them.)

Maceda said the remaining negotiating member-parties were still selecting four out of six contenders.

Binay added that UNO would make "a formal and official declaration of the lineup" and then engage in discussions of the coalition's platform.

Electoral protest pending

Legarda was the running mate of Estrada's late best friend, opposition standard-bearer Fernando Poe Jr., in the 2004 presidential election. Her electoral protest against Vice President Noli de Castro is still pending.

At the Senate, she was among those who pursued the impeachment case against Estrada.

Also on the list is incumbent Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who served as Estrada's national police chief, and who had changed his mind about seeking the post of Manila mayor in the coming elections.

Seeking a return to the Senate as well is John Osmeña of the Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC), who also ran but lost in May 2004 under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's party.

Of that experience, Osmeña told reporters: "I admit, I made a mistake. That was my biggest mistake. What happened will never happen again."

Making up the "youth sector" in the slate are Representatives Francis Escudero (NPC, Sorsogon) and Alan Peter Cayetano (Nacionalista Party, Pateros-Taguig) , brother of incumbent Sen. Pia Cayetano and son of the late Sen. Rene Cayetano; Ejercito; Rep. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III (Liberal Party, Tarlac), only son of former President Corazon Aquino; and Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III, son and namesake of the incumbent senator who heads the minority in the chamber.

'They dropped themselves'

The list of eight is a corrected version of an earlier lineup Estrada had announced, and which included Senate President Manuel Villar and former senator Vicente Sotto III.

Sotto has defected from the UNO and is reportedly being considered for the administration slate.

The only addition to the partial list is Aquino, who may have wrested the slot from his aunt, former senator Tessie Aquino-Oreta, who also recently left UNO.

"As you've seen from the … list, we would even thank the two (Sotto and Oreta) because they opened up two seats to accommodate others," Maceda said, adding:

"We didn't drop them. They dropped themselves."

Former Vice President Teofisto Guingona is another dropout, having decided not to run for the Senate.

Maceda said Guingona — an Arroyo critic who, as senator, led the impeachment of Estrada — had "begged off" as two in his family would be joining the local election race in Bukidnon province.

Binay had earlier said Guingona was sure to lead UNO's senatorial roster. Maceda said yesterday that, while out of the list, Guingona had vowed to actively participate in the campaign.

Campaign activity

At the UP Bahay ng Alumni, Lloyd Zaragoza, lead convenor of the Kabataan Para sa Bayan, said his group believed that JV Ejercito would be "a good champion for the youth in the Senate" as he would "fiercely advocate legislative measures to greatly improve the lives of all young people of the land, ang pag-asa ng bayan (the hope of the nation)."

Kabataan Para sa Bayan is a coalition of youth groups that drafted the Kartilya ng Kabataan, which contains the needs of the youth today, like access to quality education, freedom of expression and from discrimination, and employment.

The coalition includes the Kabataan party-list group, Sanlakas-Youth, and College Editors' Guild of the Philippines, among other groups.

The event appeared like a campaign activity, with the crowd chanting "JV! JV!" as the mayor entered the building.

After the endorsement in the latter part of the program, tarpaulins bearing Ejercito's picture and the words "JV Ejercito para sa Senado" were unfurled, and the crowd erupted in cheers.

The mayor then went to the podium, thanked his audience and said he had not yet decided on his candidacy.

He also denied to the Philippine Daily Inquirer that he was testing the waters of his possible voter base, the youth.

Nevertheless, participants were later handed giveaways such as calendars and rubber wrist bands bearing Ejercito's name. An aide of the mayor said the wrist bands came from the Kabataan Para sa Bayan, which Zaragoza later confirmed.

Team Unity

The top man of the ruling Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats party yesterday declared that the administration coalition would add "enlightened, moderate and constructive" candidates from the opposition in its senatorial slate.

In an interview with reporters in Malacañang, Speaker and Lakas president Jose de Venecia said: "We need to have a constructive, enlightened opposition. We have to develop the moderates in the country as against the extremist and the radicals."

Asked if former senators Sotto and Oreta would fall into this category, De Venecia said: "That is the grist of moderation."

Michael Defensor, Ms Arroyo's chief of staff, said there was "no stopping" the formation of "Team Unity" — the administration slate that would include candidates from the opposition — for the upcoming polls. With reports from Miko L. Morelos and Gil C. Cabacungan Jr. in Manila; Yolanda Sotelo-Fuertes, Inquirer Northern Luzon