Villar’s NP forms alliance with Marcos party

THE NACIONALISTA Party (NP) headed by Senator Manuel B. Villar, Jr., on Friday forged a coalition with the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL) which is led by Ilocos Norte Rep. Ferdinand "Bongbong" R. Marcos, Jr.

One result of this merger is that Mr. Marcos is now officially included in the NP’s senatorial ticket for the May 2010 elections.

Another is that Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Saturnino C. Ocampo said he is thinking of retracting his support for the NP standard-bearer in next year’s national elections.

In signing the coalition agreement at the Laurel House in Mandaluyong City, Mr. Villar said, "Our pressing challenge is to jointly address the plague of poverty which has continued to grip the majority of our people through leadership transitions."

Mr. Marcos, the only son of the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos who founded the KBL during the Martial Law years, said of Mr. Villar: "He is a simple man of humble origins with a grand vision for the country... Not only does he understand the underprivileged, he started life with so little, just like the ordinary Filipino."

Mr. Villar went from being a wet market vendor in Tondo to becomign a billionaire with a real estate empire.

Mr. Villar said the "single defining issue" in the 2010 polls is poverty, and he believed that Mr. Marcos can help the party advance its advocacy of uplifting the lives of the poor.

But Mr. Ocampo sees the Marcoses in a different light.

"We will clarify this announcement, what this means. We must first know the terms of the NP-KBL alliance, of which we have not been informed beforehand by Senator Villar. We have laid down clearly with Senator Villar our outstanding issues with the Marcoses -- compensation for the human rights victims and recovery of ill-gotten wealth," Mr. Ocampo said yesterday in a statement.

" Our strong position against the human rights violations committed during the Marcos regime and for the return of the ill-gotten Marcos wealth that could be used to compensate the victims of these human rights violations cannot be compromised, Mr. Ocampo added.

Mr. Ocampos said a review of his party’s support for Mr. Villar is needed, and they will soon decide if they will continue to support for the senator or consider joining other parties.

Makabayan Coalition, of which Mr. Ocampo is president, plans to join Mr. Villar’s party. Aside from Mr. Ocampo being on NP’s guest senatorial slate, Gabriela party-list Rep. Liza L. Maza is also thinking of joining the Villar camp.

Meanwhile, former President Joseph "Erap" E. Estrada, 72, will file his certificate of candidacy next week, said former Senator Ernesto M. Maceda, spokesman of the United Opposition.

"President Estrada certainly will be filing [his candidacy] on Nov. 27 and he has formed a legal panel [to handle his case]," Mr. Maceda told a news conference in the Senate on Friday.

"Erap para sa Mahirap (Erap for the Poor)" was his campaign slogan when he first ran for president in 1998. He won with 10 million votes, the biggest number of votes a presidential candidate has garnered in the country.

Mr. Estrada was overthrown in 2001 amid corruption allegations. He was charged, found guilty, and sentenced to life imprisonment for plunder in October 2007.

Two months after he was sentenced, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo granted him executive clemency, which also restored his political and civil rights. Since then, he has declared his eligibility to run for re-election, saying he is not covered by the election ban under the Constitution.

The Commission on Elections has opened the filing of candidacies on Friday until Dec. 1. -- with a report from Jhoanna Frances S. Valdez