Villar: 2010 polls to push through

MANILA, Philippines - Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. said yesterday he believed that elections will push through in 2010.

“I still believe that it’s more than 50 percent (sure) that elections will push through. It’s not easy to simply postpone the elections because we (candidates) are already in a campaign mode,” Villar told The STAR.

“It has become more difficult now to stop the elections because everybody is campaigning already, including the local candidates. As we move closer to November, the locals, senatoriables and even the presidentiables would have already campaigned a lot, making any attempt to stop it no longer feasible,” Villar said.

He expressed confidence that President Arroyo would step down after her term ends on June 30, 2010.

Villar, who is leading in recent surveys on presidential aspirants, said Mrs. Arroyo has no choice but to step down at the end of her term “unless (term extension) is served to her on a silver platter.”

He said at least 15 senators are going to campaign in 2010, with four to five senators likely to run for president, one for a seat in the House of Representatives, and several others for re-election.

“It’s going to be election season in the next few months,” Villar said, noting that political mudslinging will intensify as election nears.

Villar took note of doubts on whether Mrs. Arroyo would make good her statement in her State of the Nation Address (SONA), that she wouljust finish her term because of her low credibility.

Villar said it is up to the people to decide whether they will believe the President regarding the rosy statistics she gave about her nine-year performance.

“To be fair with her, since we did not go into recession, she has done something. The OFW remittances greatly helped in the resilience of the economy,” Villar said.

He commended Mrs. Arroyo for handling the economy fairly but it is not sufficient to address poverty.

Villar merely laughed off the President’s swipes against her critics, who included former House speaker Jose de Venecia, ex-President Fidel Ramos, ex-President Joseph Estrada and presidential aspirant Sen. Manuel Roxas.

“That’s part of human conduct, to get back if one is already piqued or fed up,” Villar said, adding that it’s her last attempt to hit back at them.

Sen. Joker Arroyo shared Villar’s concern, adding that her critics have been hitting her left and right for the past several years.

“It’s just now that the President hit back,” Arroyo said.

Vice President Noli de Castro said the President made clear her intentions not to prolong her stay in power beyond 2010.

He said he too would step down after his term ends on June 30 next year.

Sen. Loren Legarda said “there’s no point in analyzing to death that part of the SONA on whether President Arroyo would indeed step down from office in 2010.”

“After all, she can say one thing and do the exact opposite like she did in 2004 when she turned her back on her pledge not to run for President then,” Legarda said.

Legarda stressed that the President must step down after her term.

“No ifs, no buts, she has to step down from the presidency next year,” Legarda added.

Sen. Roxas said Mrs. Arroyo should go as mandated by law on June 30 next year.

“By law her term ends on June 30 – she’s done. Let’s not focus on that, but on our future so we will succeed,” Roxas said.

Critics believe GMA will run for Congress

University of the Philippines sociology professor Randy David, who vowed to challenge Mrs. Arroyo if she runs for a congressional seat in Pampanga’s second district, said that she failed to declare in her SONA that she will not run for Congress in next year’s elections.

David told The STAR that the President did not categorically state that she would retire from government after her term ends in 2010.

He challenged Mrs. Arroyo to engage in a public debate with him in the towns of the second district of Pampanga in case they both run for Congress.

“I am not thinking about the (financial) cost of running. No one can match the resources she can have at her disposal. I don’t have such resources, but I don’t believe in that kind of politics, patronage politics that buys people and their votes,” he said.

The second district includes the President’s hometown of Lubao, which has the biggest voting population of 74,815 voters, Guagua with 57,575, Floridablanca with 48,521, Porac with 47,977, Sta. Rita with 21,870 and Sasmuan with 20,002 voters. David is from Guagua.

David said that despite the lack of funds, he has remained confident he would beat the President in the congressional race.

“As a sociologist, I know how Kapampangans who pioneered as overseas Filipino workers have brought home with them modernist visions on responsible citizenship and choosing responsible leaders,” he said.

Joey de Venecia, one of the whistleblowers in the canceled $329-million national broadband network-ZTE deal, said the President wasted her chance to tell the people that she would step down next year during the SONA last Monday.

“What should have been her valedictory State of the Nation Address only fanned the fire of rumors that Mrs. Arroyo has every intention of perpetuating herself as president or prime minister,” De Venecia said.

It was the young De Venecia who implicated First Gentleman Mike Arroyo in the alleged anomalous national broadband deal signed by the government with the Chinese firm ZTE Corp. that led to the falling out of his father, former speaker Jose de Venecia, and Mrs. Arroyo.

De Venecia said with her speech lasting more than an hour, she could have easily taken a few seconds to tell everyone that she was definitely leaving public office for good after June 30, 2010.

Dr. Prospero de Vera, a professor of the UP National College of Public Administration and Governance (NCPAG), yesterday said in the forum held at Ilustrado Restaurant that unlike her other critics he would like to see Mrs. Arroyo push through with her plans to run for representative of Pampanga.

He believes that even if she becomes a member of the House of Representatives, her allies would soon desert her and pledge their allegiance to the newly elected president.

“In our country’s history, never has Congress locked horns with the President. The scenario will be that she will just be a representative of Pampanga,” De Vera added. - With Evelyn Macairan, Eva Visperas, Ding Cervantes - By Christina Mendez (Philstar News Service, www.philstar.com)