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President Gloria Arroyo would be unbeatable in her
home province of Pampanga should she decide to run for congressman,
a Malacañang official said on Friday.
Cabinet Secretary Silvestre Bello
3rd was reacting to reports that Randy David, a sociology professor
at the University of the Philippines in Quezon City, was planning to
challenge President Arroyo if she vied for a seat representing the
Second District of Pampanga in the 2010 elections.
David hails from Pampanga’s
Guagua town but, Bello said during a press briefing, it was safe to
say that the President—from the province’s Lubao town—is far
more popular than David.
“Professor Daavid is always
welcome to run,” Bello said, adding that if David thinks he is
qualified to run for political office, then he can do so.
According to him, Mrs. Arroyo is
being challenged by many politicians because she is a formidable
opponent and the figure to beat. The President, however, has
remained silent on her political plans after 2010, the end of her
term.
“People would challenge those
who would be a worthy opponent in order to have a great fight. But
amid this issue, Malacañang is still clueless regarding the
political plans of the President,” Bello said.
The United Opposition (UNO) would
back David if he decided to run against Mrs. Arroyo for a
congressional seat.
“Randy David will be fighting a
tough battle, but his is a principled one, and we will support
him,” UNO President and Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay said in a
statement also on Friday.
The President, according to Binay,
“appears convinced that she will get the congressional seat on a
silver platter. From there, the post of prime minister under a
parliamentary system is hers. But we believe that there are many
concerned citizens like Randy David who are willing to fight an
uphill battle rather than let Mrs. Arroyo have her way.”
UNO and other critics of
the government say that the President would run for prime minister
if a parliamentary system was installed under amendments to the 1987
Constitution via a Constituent Assembly, or “Con-Ass.”
Binay said that Mrs. Arroyo might
see a repeat of the 2007 race for governor of Pampanga where her
candidate lost to Fr. Ed Panlilio.
Another UNO leader also on Friday
invited David to join the group, the better for it to help him
square off with the President.
Joseph Victor Ejercito, the mayor
of San Juan City (Metro Manila) and also the chairman of UNO-National
Capital Region, said that David would be an “asset” to any
political party.
David had said that while the
people of Pampanga were proud to have a province mate as President,
this was not a justification for her to prolong her stay in power.
The 2010 elections will pick her successor.
He noted that Mrs. Arroyo was
frequenting Pampanga recently, distributing checks and food,
“precisely the worst aspects of patronage politics.”
David said that running against
the President would also provide him the opportunity to grill her on
the corruption scandals hounding her administration.
On a national scale, he added,
facing Mrs. Arroyo in an electoral race would be “the easiest
thing in the world because she is the most unpopular President.”
But when it came down to local
politics, David said that he probably did not stand a chance against
her.
When asked where he would get the
resources to run against Mrs. Arroyo, he said, “I don’t know.
Maybe if you run, the resources will come.”
David said that he had not talked
with Panlilio about his plan or whether he and the governor would
form an alliance against the President and her son, Juan Miguel
“Mikey” Arroyo, the incumbent representative of Pampanga’s
Second District who has announced plans to run for governor against
the priest-turned-politician.
According to him, his wife,
former Civil Service Commission chief Karina Constantino-David, and
their four children and his siblings were vehemently against his
running.
--Camille Rose A. Ignacio,Cris G. Odronia And Francis Earl A.
Cueto
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