Leftwing lawmakers go it alone

LEFTWING lawmakers yesterday dropped negotiations to join Senator and presidential candidate Manuel Villar’s Nacionalista Party after he included Ilocos Norte Rep. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the party’s senatorial slate.

Reps. Satur Ocampo of Bayan Muna and Liza Largoza-Maza of Gabriela said they would run for senator next year but as independent candidates.

They told reporters that it had become in a “untenable” for them to ally with Villar’s party following its decision to adopt Marcos and his Kilusang Bagong Lipunan party.

The Nacionalistas’ alliance with Marcos and his party was a tacit approval to stop pursuing the cases of ill-gotten wealth against the Marcoses and compensation for the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ Martial Law victims.

“Last week, we were in the final phase of talks with NP standard bearer Manny Villar on the possibility of being guest candidates in the NP senatorial ticket,” Ocampo said.

“However, the formal alliance between the NP and the KBL and the declaration of Congressman Bongbong Marcos’ senatorial candidacy under this alliance became a stumbling bloc to this possibility.

“We can deliver three million solid votes. The KBL only has three officer-members with Marcos as president, his mother Imelda Marcos as secretary general, and Imee Marcos as campaign manager.”

Ocampo dismissed as baseless the Nacionalistas’ argument that the Marcoses could bring in the “Solid North.”

“In a meeting of the Makabayang Koalisyon ng Mamamayan this morning, we formalized our decision not to pursue our guest candidacy under the NP,” Maza said.

“At this point, doing otherwise would compromise our stand on the issue of recovering the Marcos family’s ill-gotten wealth and compensating the human rights victims of the Marcos dictatorship.

“These are issues that are very important to us and require closure. It would be a grave injustice to the Filipino people to ignore or gloss over them for the sake of political expediency.” Christine F. Herrera