Militants opt for solo flight

PARTY-LIST Reps. Satur Ocampo (Bayan) and Liza Maza (Gabriela) backed out from being guest candidates in the senatorial ticket of the Nacionalista Party (NP) and will instead run as independents.

"The formal alliance between the NP and the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan and the declaration of Congressman (Ferdinand) Bongbong Marcos’ senatorial candidacy under this alliance became a stumbling bloc to this possibility," they said.

The lawmakers said "the moribund party that was founded by the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos and which supported and benefited from his 20-year fascist rule, has been resurrected and put on equal footing with the NP – a party whose existence, in fact, was virtually obliterated by Marcos’ one-man, one-party dictatorship."

Ocampo said they do not want to compromise their stand on the issue of recovering the Marcos family’s ill-gotten wealth and compensating human rights victims.

Ocampo said such issues require closure and "it would be a grave injustice to the Filipino people to ignore or gloss over them for the sake of political expediency."

Marcos formally joined the NP senatorial slate last Friday at the Laurel House in Mandaluyong City.

He and Sen. Manny Villar also signed a "coalition agreement" to formalize the alliance of the NP and KBL.

Marcos has said he is open to working with leftists because the issue is not about them but the problems the country is facing.

NP officials said the door remains open for further dialogs.

"We still consider them as friends, we stood together in all issues…we are keeping the lines open, continue dialogues. In due time this issue will be resolve," NP spokesman Adel Tamano said.
– Wendell Vigilia and JP Lopez

More on News