All opposition parties should unite to prevent any member of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s family from keeping their House seats, businessman Joey de Venecia III said yesterday.
“In running for congressman, Mrs. Arroyo plans to continue her family’s reign of greed,” he said.
After breaking every law in the book, President Arroyo is now directly defying the Philippine Constitution which bans political dynasties in leading the Arroyo family’s stranglehold on the House of Representatives.
“How many Arroyos do we have in the House now?” he asked.
Answering his own question, de Venecia pointed to the two sons of Mrs. Arroyo – Mikey and Dato – along with her brother-in-law Iggy as members of the House.
“Then, from out of nowhere, her sister-in-law also became a member via a questionable party-list. That’s four Arroyos in the House. Where will it stop? When there are two dozen Macapagals and Arroyos in Congress?”
De Venecia recalled his own encounter with the patriarch of the Arroyo family, First Gentleman Mike Arroyo, who famously told him to “back off” and allow the graft-tainted P16-billion ZTE-NBN project to push through.
IT businessman de Venecia refused, citing the inferior plan submitted by ZTE which he said was so overpriced that Mike Arroyo would have received kickbacks and commissions of about P10 billion.
De Venecia suggested that the presidential candidates of the opposition get together to find common candidates in the areas where the Arroyos are seeking reelection.
“They may be campaigning against each other, but the camps of Erap Estrada, Noynoy Aquino and Manny Villar could field common candidates against congressmen Iggy and Dato Arroyo, and most especially Gloria Arroyo.”
De Venecia said he realizes that all the opposition parties already have candidates in the localities where the Arroyos are in power. He said the opposition parties can agree to back the candidate with the best qualifications and best chances of beating the Arroyos.
“Some sacrifices will have to be made, but those who back out in favor of the stronger candidate will have done the country a lot of good,” he said.
De Venecia said that it was a foregone conclusion that Gloria Macapagal Arroyo would win as representative of the second district of Pampanga.
“She will win an empty victory. Having all of the political weapons of the Office of the President at her disposal, who in his right mind would want to contest her bid?” according to de Venecia.
Mrs. Arroyo’s transparent bid to stay in power at all cost so that she and her family will not be charged with plunder will not work, said de Venecia.
Two members of the House have already been convicted in recent years, one for gun-running, another for rape.
“Gloria Arroyo will be the third,” predicted de Venecia.
He said the president “was completely bereft of delicadeza” in bullying her way to a House seat.
De Venecia called on the Filipino people to “allow one Arroyo an empty victory, but send a message to all the other members of the family that they are not wanted.”
While admitting that political dynasties continue to rule in some parts of the country, de Venecia said many of them were at least true public servants. He mentioned the likes of the Osmenas of Cebu, the Laurels of Batangas and even the Binays of Makati City.
The Arroyos are a different case, de Venecia said.
The Arroyos are the country’s first nationwide dynasty, winning positions even in areas where they do not come from, the businessman said. And even with four Arroyos in the House, “not one of them was able to produce a bill that redounded to the good of the people,” said de Venecia
December 4th, 2009 @ Ricky Rivera
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