INQUIRER.net Eleksyon 2007

De Venecia sure Arroyo party won’t field bet against him

Inquirer

DAGUPAN CITY—Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. is confident that the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi), a party affiliated with the administration, will not field any candidate against him in the fourth congressional district race in Pangasinan.

De Venecia, president of the dominant administration party Lakas-CMD, said Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Villafuerte, Kampi president, has told him that Kampi has denied the application for membership of former Philippine National Police chief Arturo Lomibao, one of the two possible candidates that the Speaker would face in the race.

Lomibao earlier announced his intention to challenge De Venecia’s reelection bid in the fourth congressional district. A possible third candidate is Dagupan City Mayor Benjamin Lim, who represented the district from 1998 to 2001.

De Venecia, in a telephone interview on Saturday, also said First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo sent him a text message saying Kampi, which President Macapagal-Arroyo helped organize, will not field any candidate against him.

“I am the candidate of the coalition parties following the equity of the incumbent rule,” De Venecia said.

He said Villafuerte also assured him that he would not run for Speaker of the next Congress.

“I am his candidate [for Speaker]. [Villafuerte] will be supporting me,” said De Venecia.

On Saturday, Lomibao said he was “99.99 percent” sure of running for representative but has yet to receive confirmation on the status of his application for membership to Kampi.

Lomibao, who resigned as administrator of the National Irrigation Administration, said his decision to run for representative has no blessing from the President.

“What’s important is the blessing of the people, not the President’s, but it’s a plus factor,” he told reporters here.

Lomibao said he did not talk to Ms Arroyo about his plan to run against De Venecia, but he assumed that the President already knew of his plan through her political advisers.

But he said when he talked to Ms Arroyo about his plan to run for Pangasinan governor three weeks ago, the President did not discourage or encourage him.

“When I told the President that I was running [for governor], she did not say yes, she did not say no. She did not encourage (or) discourage me,” Lomibao said.

Lim said he and Lomibao were talking and “comparing notes.”

“Everybody has a right to run,” Lim said. Yolanda Sotelo-Fuertes, Inquirer Northern Luzon

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