NP SHOULD BE THE MAJORITY PARTY, NOT MINORITY PARTY

COMELEC TACTICS TO ROB LP TIME TO APPEAL BEFORE SC SLAMMED

The Liberal Party today branded the delay in the Commission on Election’s release of the formal decision on its reported approval of the ‘bogus’ alliance of the Nacionalista Party and the Nationalist People’s Coalition for the May 10 elections as part of a conspiracy to rig the May 10 elections in favor of the Villarroyo Coalition.

In a press conference at the LP headquarters, party leaders led by its standard bearers Senators Benigno S. Aquino III and Senator Mar Roxas expressed fears the delay in the issuance of the resolution on the issues of the “bogus” coalition between the NP and the NPC and which party should get the dominant minority status were designed to rob LP material time to appeal the case before the Supreme Court and have it resolved before the May 10 national elections.

“What’s taking the Comelec such a long time to release this resolution? Alam na ng sambayanan na niluto na sa Comelec ang koalisyon ng NP at ng NPC (Everybody knows the bogus coalition has been sanctioned by the Comelec),” Liberal President Senator Mar Roxas asked in a press conference in the LP headquarters in Cubao yesterday.

Roxas said further delays in the release of the reported resolution would give the Liberal Party little time to seek other legal remedies. “Kailangang ilabas na ito. Ngayon na (They must put it out, now),” he stressed.

Aquino said the NP should stop pretending to be a minority group, insisting its not-so-secret ‘unholy alliance’ with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo qualifies it to replace the Lakas-Kampi party of President Arroyo as the new Dominant Majority Party in this year’s polls.

“Ang dominant minority status ay para sa mga partidong oposisyon. Hindi naman opposition party ang NP kundi isang administration-backed party. Mas akma kung nag-apply ito na Dominant Majority Party (The dominant minority party status is for the real opposition party. The NP is not an opposition party and is backed by the administration and its allies. Rather, it is more fit to become the dominant majority party),” Aquino said.

Lawyers of the LP on Friday filed a motion urging the Comelec to release in the soonest time possible its formal decision on the NP-NPC merger, stressing “unnecessary further delay of the release of the allegedly already-signed resolution…may frustrate the right of the Liberal Party to make the appropriate remedy.”

Prior to this, the LP had filed two separate Motions for Early Resolution of the issue – one on March 23 and another on March 30, emphasizing the urgency for the Comelec to immediately resolve the case due to the fast-approaching elections. It stressed that the issue involves prejudicial questions. There was no immediate response from the Comelec.

On April 8, however, Commissioner Lucenito Tagle was quoted as saying that the Comelec had approved the NP- NPC alliance. He said, though, that the decision has yet to be promulgated and that the resolution would be released next week, at the earliest.

Roxas had chided the Comelec for the premature announcement of the decision, insisting that a formal resolution should have been released first before any media announcements were made.

The LP had opposed the ‘fake’ NP-NPC coalition as illegal because it was formed and registered way past the August 17, 2009 deadline for the Comelec to recognize alliances for the May 10 elections between or among political parties.

It cited news reports the supposed coalition it was not approved by NPC founder Ambassador Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. as revealed by Pangasinan Rep. Mark Cojuangco, who revealed NPC chair and former Isabela Gov. Faustino Dy Jr. did not have authority to sign any coalition with other political parties.

A confirmation of the NP-NPC alliance would pave the way for the NP to be named the dominant minority party status in the May 10 elections being contested also by the LP and other political parties. The dominant minority party gets a coveted copy of the election returns and access to central electronic server for the votes cast on May 10.

Aquino had warned that if all servers are given to administration parties, poll-fraud operators would have the free hand to carry out their scheme, pointing again to the ‘unholy alliance’ between Malacañang and the NP. Aquino had exposed that NP presidential bet Manuel Villar is the ‘secret’ candidate of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Aquino and Roxas have earlier alerted the public of an administration-hatched ‘grand conspiracy’ to tamper with the results of the May 10 polls. They noted alarming developments in the poll body’s preparations for the country’s first automated election system (AES) and in the political front that point to the disturbing scenario of a failure of elections, thereby extending the 9-year term of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

04-13-2010