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By Sam Mediavilla Reporter
A senior Malacañang official
said on Friday that the administration would resolve within the next
two weeks the standoff between local candidates from coalition
allies Lakas and Kampi.
Secretary Gabriel Claudio,
political adviser to President Arroyo, said in a chance interview
the administration’s arbitration committee would be decided who to
field in Tagaytay, Pangasinan, Pasig, Nueva Ecija, Masbate, Southern
Leyte, North Cotabato, Lanao del Sur, Samar and Caloocan City.
Lakas and Kampi have been at
loggerheads as their local bets battle for the right to be named the
official coalition candidate.
Claudio said the differences
could still be worked out before the campaign period for local
officials begins on March 30.
“This is when we expect the
machinery of the coalition made up of five or six major political
parties which include Lakas, Kampi, Nationalist People’s Coalition
and Liberal Party will go into full throttle,” he said.
Claudio acknowledged that the
issue of fielding candidates for the administration in the local
level “does pose a problem but it is a problem that we [in the
administration] prefer over the kind of problem that the opposition
has, which is not having candidates at all.”
He also revealed that among the
areas the arbitration committee has resolved are the fight between
Pampanga Board Member Lilia Pineda and Governor Mark Lapid where the
latter will get the endorsement of the President.
In Bulacan, Robert Pagdanganan,
chairman and president of the Philippine International Trading
Corp., was chosen to run for governor because the incumbent his old
rival, Josie de la Cruz is in her last term.
In Batangas incumbent Gov. Armand
Sanchez got the President’s endorsement after Mayor Vilma Santos
of Lipa City gave way to the candidacy of her brother-in-law,
Vice-Governor Ricky Recto.
Claudio said Nueva Ecija,
Southern Leyte and Lanao del Sur are still “free zones” until
the arbitration panel decides.
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