Liberal Party of the Philippines

The Liberal Party today pressed the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to reject the application for registration of the unauthorized coalition between the Nacionalista Party and the Nationalist People’s Coalition and its own application to be granted the dominant minority party status for this year’s elections.

The LP, through its lawyers, presented before the Comelec en banc documentation proving that the alleged NP-NPC alliance was a “coalition in afterthought” formed merely to thwart the Liberals’ bid to retain its dominant minority party status for the May 10 elections.

The Comelec en banc had agreed to look into the LP’s formal objection against the registration of the NP-NPC coalition, a petition that the Nacionalistas lumped with its application to be accredited as the dominant minority party this year.

The deadline for the registration of political parties and coalitions had already lapsed as early as August last year, the LP insisted, citing provisions from existing election laws.

The LP also pointed out the alleged alliance has yet to be formally recognized and authorized by Pangasinan Rep. Mark Cojuangco and his father, Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco, who is the founder of the NPC.

The NP had presented to the Comelec an agreement signed between NP President Manuel Villar and NPC Chairman Faustino Dy to prove the validity of the coalition.

These being so, LP Director General Chito Gascon said deliberations regarding reception of evidence in relation to the existence of the false coalition is unnecessary and amounts to a waste of time because it was filed out of time and without consent of NPC members. All the Comelec need to do is to enforce its own rules that would logically result in denying the NP coalition petition outright, he stressed.

“Una, lagpas-lagpas na ang deadline para sa pag-recognize ng mga bagong koalisyon. Pangalawa, hindi naman pala aprubado ng mismong founder ng NPC itong pekeng koalisyon na ito. Sinasayang lang ng NP ang oras ng Comelec (First, the deadline for the Comelec to recognize coalitions among political parties had lapsed. Second, there is no approval from the NPC’s own leadership of this fake coalition),” Gascon said.

Gascon insisted the coalition was inked in haste to meet the Comelec deadline on the filing for the accreditation for the dominant minority party, noting how the leaders of the two parties failed to address the conflicting candidacies of their local members - clear proof that the phony alliance was done haphazardly and without consultation with party members. NP and NPC members are up against each other in 15 congressional seats, 5 gubernatorial and 8 vice-gubernatorial posts and 78 mayoralty posts.

He cited as example the congressional seat in the 5th district of Iloilo province, where incumbent Vice Gov. Rolex T. Suplico of the NP will be pitted against NPC’s Raul S. Alba. The situation is the same in Davao del Sur, where incumbent Rep. Marc Douglas Cagas (NP) and Erwin Llanos (NPC) will slug it out for the province’s 1st congressional district.