By Angie M. Rosales
The Daily Tribune
The Daily Tribune
Says ‘double-crossing’ senators stricken off Iglesia vote list
With the solid Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) vote, the rankings in all these pre-election surveys won’t likely reflect the standings of the current crop of senators who are, in various surveys, leading the senatorial survey slate pack.
This was the prediction of controversial Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago who yesterday said that the “nine million strong” INC will again be voting as a bloc and will emerge as an election game changer as the INC bloc vote is being claimed by the senator to be “tagetting” reelectionist senators from being included in the INC vote for the May 13, 2013 polls.
This was the prediction of controversial Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago who yesterday said that the “nine million strong” INC will again be voting as a bloc and will emerge as an election game changer as the INC bloc vote is being claimed by the senator to be “tagetting” reelectionist senators from being included in the INC vote for the May 13, 2013 polls.
Santiago doused cold water on the administration camp, that this early, has already been claiming an administration majority victory in the senatorial polls, but stressing that the INC ticket will be geared toward punishing certain reelectionist senators who may have “double-crossed” the influential religious group.
The administration-led coalition Team PNoy is carrying five out of the six reelectionist upper chamber members in their slate, namely Senators Francis “Chiz” Escudero, Loren Legarda, Alan Peter Cayetano, Antonio Trillanes IV and Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel while the United Nationalist Alliance’ (UNA) lone reelectionist is Sen. Gregorio Honasan.
“INC, out of patriotism, took a strong position during a recent political controversy. Certain reelectionist senators reportedly promised to support the INC position; but out of opportunism, reneged on their promise when the hour came,” Santiago claimed. The senator is said to have consistently received the backing of the INC in the past elections.
But Santiago refused to divulge further details of this alleged incident, “because it might violate the privacy of the INC.”
But it was fairly evident that the senator was obviously referring to the issue concerning the impeachment proceedings last year of former Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona as there were reports that the INC had allegedly sought some senator-judges and requested them to vote for the acquittal of the impeached Chief Justice.
Such reports allegedly prompted President Aquino to “visit” and “touch base” with INC executive minister Eduardo Manalo on the matter of the impeachment proceedings of Corona.
Reports are that the INC head and the current Palace tenant are not in good terms.
Team PNoy campaign manager, Sen. Franklin Drilon on Thursday, however, expessed confidence in the strong chances of the administration slate dominating the senatorial race, even in the so-called “solid north”, in the face of the claim of the opposition United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) that the Ilocos Regions were its bailiwicks.
“The success of the sorties by our individual candidates is reflected in the surveys in Regions 1 and 2 which follow the national results of having eight or nine Team PNoy candidates in the top 12. We are consistently dominating the polls there. We are confident that this coalition will hold until May 13,” Drilon was quoted as saying.
“The success of the sorties by our individual candidates is reflected in the surveys in Regions 1 and 2 which follow the national results of having eight or nine Team PNoy candidates in the top 12. We are consistently dominating the polls there. We are confident that this coalition will hold until May 13,” Drilon was quoted as saying.
Santiago, however, said that senatorial candidates should not be complacent about their survey rankings, because the INC is now said to have 9 million voters who, following INC practice, will vote as a bloc.
“You don’t doublecross the INC and get away with it,” she warned.
“You don’t doublecross the INC and get away with it,” she warned.
As such, the recently released survey results showing a supposed 9-3 standing in favor of Team PNoy, might be “radically changed” after the INC releases its official list of approved senatorial candidates, expected this month.
“The survey results released last Tuesday showed that in this snapshot in time, it is 9 – 3 for the adminis-00tration coalition. The conventional wisdom is that the top 9 are sure of winning; in this short list, it is 7 – 2 for the administration. But the INC vote might still trump the survey results.
But even as Santiago claims that the INC vote will radically change the rankings of the administration reelectionist senators, she also claims that the next Senate will be predominantly composed of the following: 16 administration senators; five opposition senators; and three independent senators,” she said.
Based on her prediction, Santiago noted the possibility of the following Team PNoy members winning in the polls, namely: Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, Paolo Benigno “Bam” Aquino, Alan Peter Cayetano, Loren Legarda, Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel, Grace Poe, Antonio Trillanes and Cynthia Villar.
However, following her math on the 9 million vote strong Iglesia vote, there are certain Team PNoy senatorial candidates who are still in the lower rung of the surveys and a loss of 9 million votes, following her logic, will then bring down and out if the list certain administration candidates.
Angara, Aquino, Pimentel and Trillanes are in the bottom six in the surveys and 9 million votes can get them out of the Senate race.
From the UNA camp, Santiago named Nancy Binay, and JV Ejercito Estrada possibly joining the ranks of the opposition bloc while it will be a toss between Honasan and Jack Enrile for the last remaining seat.
She also said that the next Senate President will definitely come from the administration coalition, because the administration will have 16 senators, the opposition five senators, and an independent bloc will have three senators, including herself.
“With 16 senators more or less in the Senate, it is a no-brainer that the administration will get to pick the next Senate President from the most senior members of the coalition,” she said.
Santiago said that the so-called “Catholic vote” will not be a factor in the coming May elections.
She explained that the campaign by certain Catholic parishes against senators who voted in favor of the Reproductive Health Law is merely an act of vengeance, saying: “Vengeance is an attitude that evokes the Old Testament, and is incompatible with the emphasis on Christian love in the New Testament.”
“It makes me squirm when I watch on television a cleric mouthing a political vocabulary. It makes my toes curl,” Santiago said.
Santiago also said that because of the numerical edge enjoyed by the administration coalition, the next Senate President will come from the senior members of the coalition, namely: Sergio Osmeña III, Franklin Drilon, Cynthia Villar, or Teofisto Guingona III.
The senator said that depending on the effect of the solid INC vote, the administration coalition will have 16 senators, including Senators Angara, Aquino, Alan Cayetano, Pia Cayetano, Drilon, Escudero, Guingona III, Legarda, Marcos, Jr., Osmeña III, Pimentel III, Poe, Recto, Sotto III, Trillanes IV, and Villar.
In contrast, Santiago said the opposition coalition will only have five senators: Enrile, Estrada, Binay, Ejercito and either Honasan or Jack Ponce Enrile.
The senator said that a bloc of independent senators will consist of Revilla and Lapid, who are both from Lakas; and herself, coming from her own People’s Reform Party (PRP).
Santiago spoke at the annual national convention of the Philippine Masons with an audience of some 2,000 members, held at Iloilo City yesterday (April 25). There are over 25,000 Freemasons in the country.
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