Press Release
January 11, 2007

Kapihan sa Senado Excerpts

Former Senate President Ernesto Maceda today clarified that only those running for the House of Representatives under the United Opposition (UNO) will be required to sign a covenant to support pro-impeachment resolution against President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and will not include senatorial candidates since Senate members will be sitting as judges once the impeachment pushes through.

Maceda, one of the executive committee members responsible for selecting the final senatorial candidates under UNO, also disclosed that last-ditch efforts are being made by friends and supporters of the late Fernando Poe Jr. to persuade Mrs. Susan Roces to run in the Senate. But he said Mrs. Rocess has repeatedly turned down the overtures.

He also announced, during the first Kapihan sa Senado for 2007, that UNO, led by political parties Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) headed by former President Joseph Estrada and the PDP-Laban of Senator Aquilino Pimentel and Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, has been accredited by the Commission on Election (COMELEC) in early December last year.

According to Maceda, despite the emergence of other coalition parties, including the so-called Peoples Choice, UNO is the legitimate opposition party to reckon with during the mid-term May elections.

He also said that problems faced by the opposition now are quite different from those of 2001 elections like lack of senatorial candidates.

This year, Maceda said, UNO started with a list of 35 possible senatorial candidates, and this has to be pruned down to 12 final candidates. He said UNO has been exploring ways on how those who would not be accommodated in the final lineup could run for Congress.

The former Senate chief said that UNO is set to meet on January 17 to finalize the first final eight of the oppositions senatorial bets.

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On UNO:

UNO is supposed to be a spin-off of KNP (Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino) under which FPJ ran, but it is composed principally of two political parties. To begin with, the PDP-Laban of Mayor Binay and Senator Nene Pimentel, and the Peoples Partido ng Masang Pilipino or PMP of President Erap, Senator Jinggoy, and few other prominent personalities. UNO also has within its ranks, besides parties, individual political leaders. For example, while NPC, of which I am President Emeritus, is not a member of UNO. But there are about 15 NPC leaders, including Chiz Escudero, who is the minority leader, five or six congressmen, including Antonino, Lopez, Plaza and so many other local leaders on local level. The UNO is of course engaged in an effort to unify the opposition. And thats why there are on-going talks with the Nacionalista Party headed by your Senate President, Manny Villar, and the Liberal Party headed by former Senate President Frank Drilon. These talks are what we call in the very advanced stage. Issues had been stressed out. The resolution of conflicting ... especially on provincial and local levels has been stressed out, which in some cases will probably just result, as agreed, in free zone being declared in conflicting candidacies for congressman, governors, city mayors and municipal mayors. We are hoping that before the month is over, the agreements with other coalition partners will be finalized.

On Statement of Makati Mayor Binay on the requirements for Opposition candidates:

President Jojo Binay of UNO said, for our congressional candidates, they will have to agree to an agreement, that if they are elected under the UNO banner, they will sign a pro-impeachment resolution. I am clarifying that, that particular requirement or requisite is applicable only to congressional candidates and not to senatorial candidates. Because you cannot buy the senatorial candidates in advance, because they are supposed to be judges in any impeachment proceedings. Therefore they cannot be made to sign an agreement in advance of the impeachment resolution going up to the Senate, that they have already decided to support the impeachment. So let me clarify that immediately, the covenant to support the impeachment applies only to candidates for the House of Representatives.

On remaining slots in UNO from other parties aside from PMP and PDP-Laban:

I dont know if reserve is the right word, but in effect, that is part of the idea. However, it is actually five, but NP Congressman Allan Peter Cayetano, has already declared publicly, the latest being yesterday, that he is definitely running on the UNO slate. So, if you include him, there would be five in all coming from this new coalition partners, the NP and the LP.

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