MANILA, Philippines - There was neither confirmation nor denial from the Liberal Party or from Malacañang of Vice President Jejomar Binay’s claim that the ruling party is planning to “adopt” him in 2016.
In a statement, the LP did not mention Binay’s name but expressed its openness “to partnerships based on a common vision and common values.”
“The Liberal Party believes that moving this nation forward requires a people united based on principle, shared values and a common anti-corruption governance agenda. Accordingly, the LP affirms this belief in the political coalitions and alliances we, as a party, enter into,” the LP said in a statement signed by its president, Transportation and Communications Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya.
It said “patronage, expediency and political leveraging” were the characteristics of the “old politics” that the LP was determined to avoid.
“This is not the way the LP does things. President Aquino said that such a system can be changed, and once changed, can spur the transformation of society,” the LP statement read.
The LP said it stood its ground on vital legislations like the Responsible Parenthood Act and the Sin Tax Reform Act in the face of “stiff opposition from entrenched interests.”
The LP also cited its having spearheaded efforts to make “remnants of the crooked system” accountable for wrongdoing and that, together with its allies, it “pushed for justice against an ineffective ombudsman, a dishonest chief justice and a former president,” in apparent reference to Merceditas Gutierrez, Renato Corona and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
“In our continuing work to uplift the lives of our countrymen as quickly as possible, the LP has remained in vigorous opposition to those who wish to return to the old politics, those who are corrupt and those who simulate reformist zeal even as they continue to take advantage of our fellowmen,” the LP statement read.
Malacañang also shrugged off Binay’s revelation, saying the administration would rather focus on the tasks of reducing poverty and uplifting the lives of citizens in general.
“These issues are much more important than focusing on (2016) politics that are still far off,” Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said in a press briefing yesterday.
Binay told reporters in Makati City on Monday that he had raw information that LP may join forces with UNA and then later “adopt” him as candidate.
Asked if Binay was not off the mark for putting the Palace on the spot, Coloma said Binay was probably just answering questions from the media and that there was nothing wrong with planning for the future.
But when told that it was Binay who volunteered the information, Coloma said the administration cannot afford to be preoccupied with politics at the moment as there are jobs to create and lives to uplift. - philstar
