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By Sam
Mediavilla, Reporter
MALACAÑANG on
Sunday chided Senate President Manuel Villar for using the
Philippine Military Academy alumni homecoming as a venue to launch
political barbs at the Arroyo administration.
In his speech
at the PMA homecoming in Baguio City Saturday, Villar, who is
running for reelection as a guest candidate of the opposition,
assailed the administration’s policy of shielding its officials
from inquiries in the Senate and its efforts to amend the
Constitution.
Palace
spokesman Ignacio Bunye said Villar’s remarks damage the
government’s attempt to “professionalize and modernize” the
Armed Forces.
He said Villar
could have chosen a more appropriate forum for partisan overtures
than the PMA in order to insulate the uniformed men from politics.
Villar, an
honorary member of the PMA Class of 1977, said the Senate would be a
“watchdog of the performance of the executive branch” and vowed
to cross party lines when issues at hand are about “national
interest.”
Bunye
challenged members of the opposition to back the government’s
effort to keep politics out of the military service.
He said the
Armed Forces is waging a continuing war against terrorism and
insurgency and “does not need such harangues from our leaders that
only pull their attention away from their primary mission.”
“We only
wish that more prudence is observed by our leaders, leaving politics
to the politicians and soldiery to the soldiers,” Bunye said.
Secretary
Gabriel Claudio, political adviser to President Arroyo, expressed
confidence that in the end the administration’s Team Unity slate
would win.
Claudio said
the administration has conceptualized its campaign program on the
premise that “the people are tired of selfish partisan
squabbles” because they deprive the country of the chance to grow
and prosper.
He said Team
Unity symbolizes “the aspiration and capacity of Filipinos to be
in harmony with one another and set aside political differences to
provide jobs, better government service and economic opportunities
for our people.”
Claudio said
the opposition is “panicking and frantically mocking” the
administration slate because it is in disarray.
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