Palace: Poll game plan is to block impeachment - Malaya 01.11.2006

BY REGINA BENGCO

THE Arroyo administration is taking extra efforts in choosing its candidates for Congress to ensure that any impeachment case against President Arroyo will not prosper.

"We have to choose the correct candidates so in the event that there is another impeachment we are assured it will not progress because we have more allies in the Lower House and Upper House,"

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said in his weekly press conference.

"Sa political exercise tinitingnan natin lagi kung ano ba ang nasa isip ng opposition, ano’ng tangka nila. That is known to us in the administration," Ermita said.

He said the administration will come up with a list of candidates for the senatorial and local elections next week.

Gabriel Claudio, presidential adviser on political affairs, said the process of putting together an administration senatorial slate is "proceeding well within the right timeline."

Claudio belied claims by the opposition that the administration is hard-pressed in coming up with a slate.

He said it is the opposition which is encountering difficulties, as shown by their conflicting pronouncements about their line-up and the "lackluster" assembly of the United Opposition last Friday.

He said the reluctance of incumbent senators to declare themselves to be with the opposition and talks of a Third Force are "telltale signs of the sinking ability of the opposition to form a united slate."

He said the opposition is also lacking in decisiveness and substance. The opposition’s declaration of former Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr. as head of its senatorial line-up, he said, has been followed by complete silence.

He said the opposition’s "platform of hatred and impeachment" will not succeed because it will make the voters realize the stark contrast between the administration and opposition.
"What the electorate will see in May is a contrast between the administration’s program of performance and progress, especially in bringing about a turnaround in the country’s economy, and the opposition’s hollow platform of hate," he said.

Ermita said it is up to the voters to give their verdict on politicians who will field their spouses, children and other relatives.

He said he does not want to judge because his daughter Eileen Ermita-Buhain took over his post as congressman of Batangas, although he was quick to add that "she is the only one (in the family in politics)."

Ermita also said he is not aware of the basis of the Black and White Movement for coming out with a list of blacklisted politicians and how it would affect the administration candidates.

Senate President Manuel Villar reminded re-electionist senators to concentrate first on passing priority bills before hitting the campaign trail.

"There is a time for everything. Even the electoral process follows a timetable for the filing of candidacy and campaign period," Villar said.

Congress has around three session weeks left.

Villar said re-electionist senators should channel their energies in approving priority measures before investing their resources to an expensive election campaign.

"Masakit sa bulsa yan," he said.

Aside from Villar, senators up for re-election are majority leader Francis Pangilinan, Ralph Recto, Joker Arroyo, Panfilo Lacson, Edgardo Angara and Loi Ejercito-Estrada. Estrada said she would not seek another term.

Villar said before the Senate adjourns in February for the election break, it should be able to pass the proposed 2007 national budget, the anti-terrorism bill, the proposed mandatory basic immunization against hepatitis-B for infants, the tourism re-engineering bill, amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, the proposed anti-rabies law, the bill promoting breastfeeding and the proposed P125-wage increase. – With Dennis Gadil