LP LAUDS TRO VS COMELEC RULING ON FAKE NP-NPC MERGER
SC DECISION LEVELS PLAYING FIELD FOR LEGIT POL PARTIES - ROXAS

The Liberal Party today lauded the Supreme Court decision enjoining the Commission Elections (Comelec) from implementing its decision recognizing the fake alliance between the Nacionalista Party and the Nationalist People's Coalition (NP-NPC) as among the applicants to be the Dominant Minority Party in the May 10 national elections.

Liberal standard-bearers Senators Benigno S. Aquino III and Mar Roxas said the high court's decision levels the playing field among legitimate political parties vying to get the dominant minority status.

"Ngayon ay pantay na ang labanan para sa dominant minority party. Mabuti't nandiyan ang Supreme Court para itama ang mali ng Comelec," Roxas, the LP President, said.

He repeated the Comelec abused its discretion when it approved the NP-NPC merger despite glaring evidence that the alliance was illegal and unauthorized, noting that, among others, the alliance was unilaterally entered into by a handful of officials and members without the imprimatur and consent of the NPC National Convention, the party's highest policy-making body.

He added the alliance was belatedly formed to dupe the Comelec and the public into believing that it was more dominant than the Liberal Party, which fielded the most number of local candidates if the NP and the NPC were treated as independent political parties.

Aquino said the SC decision proved that the fake alliance would cater solely to the interests of individuals and groups obsessed in remaining in power and continuing the system of corruption in the country.

The SC issued a Temporary Restraining Order against the Comelec's accreditation of the NP-NPC coalition and ordered the poll body to observe the status quo before it issued its April 12 decision. It likewise directed the Comelec and officials of the NP and the NPC to reply within 5-days to the 53-page Petition for Certiorari and Prohibition with Urgent Application for Temporary Restraining Order status quo ante and/or writ of preliminary injunction filed before the Supreme Court in Baguio City on Monday.

The Liberal Party had asked the Supreme Court to nullify and reverse the Comelec decision to recognize and formally accredit the bogus alliance between the NP and the NPC. It also urged the High Court to stop the Comelec from implementing its decision in its deliberation on who should be the dominant minority party in the May 10 national and local elections.

The LP reiterated the NP-NPC alliance was a bogus coalition formed solely to rob from the Liberal Party the recognition as the Dominant Minority Party, which it held during the 2007 senatorial elections.

It stressed: "A coalition of political parties must not be just a piece of paper that can be registered whimsically, most especially when such purported coalition is not only dubious in its existence but is also severely tainted with bad faith and is intended to have undue advantage against those who are faithfully complying with the law."