Boxer’s party has yet to decide on alliances

ALABEL, Sarangani: Philippine political heavyweights are courting boxing idol Manny “PacMan” Pacquiao to win his endorsement for the May 2010 presidential elections in an effort to cash in on his soaring popularity. Pacquiao said here Sunday he would soon announce which candidate he is backing, and he denied reports he was already aligned with Sen. Manuel “Manny” Villar Jr., one of the front-runners in the presidential race, of the Nacionalista Party.

“I will announce later what is my [national] party and who is the presidential candidate I am aligning with,” he told reporters in this southern Philippine town at a gathering of his “People’s Champ Movement,” a new local party Pacquiao is starting.

He admitted meeting with Villar in Manila on Friday but denied that he had already joined forces with the Nacionalistas.

“I did not give any commitment,” he said.

Villar met with Pacquiao in Manila at a dinner to celebrate the Filipino boxer’s recent victory over Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto in Las Vegas. Then on Saturday, Villar confirmed that he spoke with Pacquiao during the dinner.

Villar said, however, that he was leaving it to Pacquiao to make the formal announcement “out of respect for him.” He added that he and Pacquiao had agreed in principle to support each other.

Manila dailies, meanwhile, gave front-page coverage to reports that Villar was offering to make Pacquiao the official Nacionalista candidate for Congress in the southern province of Sarangani.

This is despite a longtime alliance between Pacquiao and President Gloria Arroyo who has endorsed another candidate, former Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro, as her presidential bet.

It’s up to Pacquaio

In Manila, Arroyo spokesman Cerge Remonde downplayed the speculation, saying “that is between Manny Villar and Manny Pacquiao. We will not interfere in that, and we will not complain if this [alliance] happens.”

“But I think it is still unclear, because Manny Pacquiao denied that he is joining NP [Nacionalista Party],” Remonde added.

In one radio interview on Saturday, Pacquiao said he was “100-percent sure” of running for congressman of Sarangani under his own People’s Champ Movement.

But he added that his party was yet unsure whether it would coalesce with other political parties or back specific candidates at the national level.

Villar, a billionaire property developer, has been placed second in surveys of contenders in the presidential elections.

Pacquiao, whose boxing victories have made him a national hero, has already said he plans to run for the Congress seat in Sarangani.

His popularity soared even further after he demolished Cotto last week to become the only man in history to win seven titles in as many weight classes.

One of Pacquiao’s political allies, Juan Domingo, said there was an offer by President Arroyo’s ruling Lakas-Kampi Christian Muslim Democrats (CMD) party for Pacquiao to join.

But Lakas has already endorsed a member of an established political clan as its candidate for the Sarangani
seat, said Domingo.

But also on Sunday, Lakas-Kampi spokesman Reggie Velasco said that they would still welcome Pacquaio to the administration party, but that he “has to undergo the rigorous selection process.”

Despite his fame, Pacquiao lost in his congressional bid in 2007 to incumbent Darlene Antonino-Custodio, who hails from an established local political clan.

The victory over Cotto, however, won him even more fame, with President Arroyo conferring on him on Friday the ceremonial “Sikatuna Award”—an honor normally reserved for foreign heads of state.

Party defections

Officials of Lakas-Kampi and the Liberal Party said, meanwhile, they believe that the political turncoatism shown by some members of the administration party was symptomatic of a weak political system.

“[A] reassessment of political parties is needed,” said Edu Manzano, the Lakas-Kampi vice presidential bet, during the weekly press forum Balitaan sa Tinapayan, on Sunday.

Manzano added that the Philippines should return to a two-party system because the vetting process would be more rigorous and would result in the selection of the best candidates. Plus, ideological lines would be more pronounced, he explained.

But Liberal Party spokesman Rep. Erin Tañada of Quezon province said that reverting back to the two-party system would not answer the problem of turncoatism.

He cited as an example the high profile changing of alliances by the late Ferdinand Marcos, who left the Liberals to run under the Nacionalistas in the 1965 elections. In that race, Marcos ran against the then incumbent and Liberal standard-bearer Diosdado Macapagal, President Gloria Arroyo’s father.

Tañada said that the only answer to the problem of turncoatism would be an injection of ideologies into the political system. He added that the country needs politicians who have a clear political agenda that people could support, and that with an ideological party, candidates can present solutions that would be hardwired to their beliefs, thus giving the people a choice.

Some of the most prominent names who bolted the administration to join the Liberals include Mayor Sonny Belmonte of Quezon City, Mayor Recom Echiverri of Caloocan City, Gov. Vilma Santos-Recto of Batangas, and her husband, former National Economic and Development Authority secretary, Ralph Recto.

Also, about 400 local officials have taken their oath as members of Villar’s Nacionalista Party.
AFP AND ANGELO S. SAMONTE WITH REPORTs FROM RUBEN D. MANAHAN 4TH AND IMMANUEL PASTOLERO