Because of Yarn vs Espino: NPC CUTS TIES WITH LP

Pangasinan Gov. Amado T. Espino

NPC Big Boss Mark Cojuangco

"The biggest insult” to the NPC was the filing of “baseless” corruption and murder charges against Pangasinan Gov. Amado Espino, who was being investigated for allegedly receiving P1 billion in kickbacks from the illegal numbers game or jueteng. Outside of jueteng, there’s even murder. But the LP should have been very careful. Their witness against Governor Espino was twice convicted of extortion" - Chairman Mark Cojuangco of the Nationalist People's Coalition

The Nationalist People’s Coalition pulled out of its alliance with the ruling Liberal Party Tuesday, creating serious cracks in the veneer of unity in the administration’s Team Pnoy senatorial slate. “There is no more Team PNoy. We have withdrawn our support. The NPC no longer honors the coalition agreement or covenant, if there was such a thing from the start, in the first place,” said NPC stalwart and former Pangasinan congressman Mark Cojuangco, son of the party’s founder, businessman Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. Speaking at a press conference about rampant rice smuggling, the younger Cojuangco said the NPC decided to go on its own in the May elections because of “irreconcilable differences” with the ruling Liberal Party. Another NPC official, Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III, confirmed the pullout from the administration coalition. The party, in fact, has allowed him to start campaigning for the opposition United Nationalist Alliance, he said. Sotto is the campaign manager of UNA candidate Senator Gregorio Honasan. “Except for the senatorial bids of Senator Loren Legarda, who is an NPC member and (Senator Francis) Chiz Escudero, being a former NPC member, our members nationwide are no longer obliged to support and campaign for the Team PNoy,” Cojuangco added. “We are supporting some candidates of UNA instead,” Cojuangco said. He said the NPC is fully supporting the senatorial bid of Cagayan Rep. Juan Ponce Enrile Jr., a candidate of UNA and an NPC member. For now, Cojuangco said the NPC has already issued orders to junk the three LP candidates in the Team PNoy lineup—Jamby Madrigal, Bam Aquino and Ramon Magsaysay Jr. – and to replace them with their preferred candidates from UNA. He said a final list of party-supported candidates would be released a month before the elections so that their names could be carried in sample ballots nationwide. Cojuangco described the pullout as retaliation for the ruling LP’s attacks on NPC candidates. “The LP started it. The LP was the first to violate the coalition covenant or agreement. We are only retaliating,” he said. “We support President Aquino but not his LP candidates in the Team PNoy.” Cojuangco said the NPC was angered by the LP’s failure to honor the principle of “equity of the incumbents” by fielding candidates in local races against sitting NPC officials. Of the 50 incumbents seeking reelection, only Malabon Rep. Jaye Lacson-Noel is running unopposed. NPC spokesman Rex Gatchalian, who is running for mayor in Valenzuela City, is also running unopposed. But Gatchalian’s brother, Valenzuela City Mayor Sherwin, who is NPC’s congressional candidate in the district that Rex will vacate, faces a Liberal Party opponent. Cojuangco said the “biggest insult” to the NPC was the filing of “baseless” corruption and murder charges against Pangasinan Gov. Amado Espino, who was being investigated for allegedly receiving P1 billion in kickbacks from the illegal numbers game or jueteng. “Outside of jueteng, there’s even murder. But the LP should have been very careful. Their witness against Governor Espino was twice convicted of extortion,” Cojuangco said. The LP has pitted Alaminos City Mayor Hernani Braganza against Espino. In throwing its full support behind Espino, the NPC said the Liberals could not easily topple the incumbent because 29 of the 38 mayors in Pangasinan were all members of the NPC. Cojuangco said the NPC also felt under attack when Pangasinan was declared a “hot spot,” which would put the province under the jurisdiction of the Commission on Elections. Cojuangco could not say if the NPC would also support another member of his clan, Margarita Cojuangco, running under the UNA banner. “We will discuss and assess whose senatorial bids the NPC will support. For now, the party is concentrating on the senatorial campaign of Senators Legarda and Escudero and Jack (Enrile). We will decide soon who else we will support, but some of them will come from UNA,” Cojuangco said. Sotto was seen in Cebu with Honasan during the opposition coalition’s proclamation rally on Feb. 12. “There hasn’t been an LP coalition for a long time,” Sotto said. “What covenant? Who was the first to break it. Not the NPC. It was the LP. They were the first ones to have violated the coalition agreement and never corrected it. They did not even bother to discuss the problems with the NPC leadership. So we are no longer obliged to campaign for Team Pnoy.” “My family is from Cebu. I am here to campaign for Greg Honasan, Jack Enrile and other UNA senatorial candidates,” Sotto said. Sotto said he may also campaign for former Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri, who was his majority leader before resigning as senator. He said he was also close to former President Joseph Estrada, whose son, San Juan Rep. JV Ejercito, is a senatorial candidate of UNA. “I have more friends in UNA. I am comfortable campaigning for them especially after the NPC made clear to us that we are no longer bound to campaign for Team PNoy. I am not campaigning for Team Pnoy, except maybe for Loren and Chiz,” Sotto said. “Loren is my party mate and the official candidate of NPC.” In a phone interview, NPC president emeritus and former senator Ernesto Maceda told Manila Standard there was never a real coalition between the NPC and the Liberal Party. He said the problem may have stemmed from local politics, where NP and LP candidates clashed. Also on Tuesday, Team Pnoy campaign manager Senator Franklin Drilon insisted that Escudero, Legarda and Grace Poe were not common candidates of the Liberal Party coalition and the UNA. “Let me make it clear, there are no common candidates… You heard Grace Poe, who said she is with the President, that she was adopted by UNA, so there are no common candidates. These are administration candidates,” said Drilon. Because they support the administration platform, it will be awkward for Legarda, Escudero and Poe to also campaign with candidates who oppose the President, he said. Poe on Tuesday said the United Nationalist Alliance can drop her from its roster of senatorial bets as she accused the opposition of imposing new conditions on adopted candidates. “When I was invited by UNA to join them as their adopted candidate, I did not ask for that,” Poe said. With Macon Ramos-Araneta, Joyce Pangco Panares and Gigi Muñoz David