Press Release
February 15, 2010

VILLARROYO GRAND CONSPIRACY IN NEW STAGE OF 'SECRET' ALLIANCE
NP-NPC COALITION ANOTHER VILLARROYO STRATEGY TO STEAL ELECTIONS

Malacañang and its not so "secret" ally Nacionalista Party took another step in their grand conspiracy to stall the victory of pro-reform forces led by Liberal Party standard bearers Senators Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III and Mar Roxas, party leaders said today.

The LP vehemently denounced the bogus "coalition" between the NP and the Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC) as part of the VILLARROYO election machinery's efforts to steal the victory of the Aquino-Roxas tandem.

Roxas, the LP President, said the LP -- the genuine opposition party in the country -- will contest the VILLARROYO coalition's bid to snatch the dominant minority party status from the LP in all legal fronts.

"The VILLARROYO coalition is in full gear to prevent the forces of good represented by Noynoy from eradicating the evil they have foisted on our country. The multi-faceted head of corruption is snapping at all fronts to prevent our voters from ridding our society of their evil presence," Roxas said.

The VILLARROYO coalition has not been so shy in a manner befitting the ardent denial of Palace and NP functionaries that they were in secret alliance, as shown by the very open support the NP has given to candidates who are loyalists of President Arroyo and her husband First Gentleman Mike Arroyo like former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn "Jocjoc" Bolante who is running for governor of Capiz under an alliance between NP and his local party, LP stalwarts noted.

Reports claimed Mr. Arroyo met with Villar in the house of his wife's loyalist, former Cabinet member Mike Defensor, to seal an agreement to make President Arroyo the new Speaker of the House of Representatives under a Villar presidency.

The NP has also fielded politicians notorious for their alleged links to illegal activities, like former Batangas Governor Armand Sanchez, who is rumoured to be an ex-jueteng lord and who is in alliance with the Lakas-Kampi, particularly its Batangas chapter which is run personally by Malacañang's top honcho, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita.

Most telling is the support of pro-administration senators like Senator Lito Lapid, a province mate and close ally of President Arroyo in Pampanga politics, who is backing the presidential candidacy of the NP's Manny Villar.

The LP has been the target also of legal manuevering of Malacañang's allies to remove them from their posts before the May 10 elections, a strategy that has victimized so far one of the country's three Ramon Magsaysay Awardees for Local Governance - Isabela Gov. Grace Padaca - and her fellow LP governors "Among Ed" Panlilio of Pampanga and Jonjon Mendoza of Bulacan.

Malacañang also moved to immobilize LP local executives by reshuffling 21 provincial and city PNP chiefs without permission from the local executives, a move forestalled in Capiz province by quick legal action led by Gov. Victor Tangco of the LP.

Nine LP leaders and supporters nationwide have also been slain in violent attacks by still unidentified armed men, the latest of them Edwin Bandila who was shot in front of his wife by motorcycle-riding gunmen in North Cotabato recently.

Roxas insisted the LP remains the true opposition party by virtue of its role as the only major political party to lead opposition to the Arroyo Administration's machinations and anti-people programs.

By law and by moral right, the LP deserves to be granted the dominant minority party status in the coming elections by virtue of its ability to field a 7,945-strong army of candidates in the national and local elections, he added.

The NP, on the other hand, fielded only 7,393 candidates while the NPC fielded 3,435 candidates. Thus neither of these two pro-Arroyo parties meets the law's requirement that the dominant minority party must have fielded the most number of candidates in the coming elections.

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