PPC headed for breakup

A pro-administration congressman predicted yesterday the eventual breakup of the ruling People Power Coalition (PPC), which is led by President Arroyo.

"I can sense that the administration coalition is headed for a division and the realignment of forces could begin early next year and lead up to the 2004 presidential elections," said Rep. Willie Buyson Villarama of Bulacan.

Villarama, who served as Mrs. Arroyo’s chief of staff when she was vice president, belongs to Aksyon Demok-ratiko, a PPC member. Ak-syon is headed by former Education Secretary Raul Roco, who ran as the party’s standard bearer in 1998.

Villarama said the PPC could be split largely into two groups: one faction to be composed of the "purists and fundamentalists" among the EDSA II players and so-called civil society, and the other consisting of "backsliders."

"The purists are those who want the national leadership to stick to and achieve the ideals of EDSA II, which among others are moral renewal, good governance, transparency in public service, and accountability," he said.

The other group would be composed of those bent on returning the country to moral decay, graft and corruption, and lack of transparency and accountability, he added.

Villarama revealed that many PPC and civil society members feel that "our national leaders are forgetting the ideals of EDSA II and that we are returning to our old ways."

He said the manifestations of this sentiment are the protests of civil society against evident Malacañang pressure that forced Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr. and Roco to quit their Cabinet posts, and against the recruitment by the President into her government of loyalists of ousted President Joseph Estrada.

"Civil society groups feel that we are slowly backsliding as if EDSA II did not happen. They are disgusted, dissatisfied," he said.

He said people hear of reports of corruption in all levels of the bureaucracy.

He pointed out that PPC members and civil society groups dissatisfied with the way Mrs. Arroyo is governing have started to search for a leader who they feel would stick to "our EDSA II aspirations."

"If they find this kind of a leader, he or she might be their candidate in 2004," he said.

Villarama suggested that a "core group" within the PPC be formed to assess the direction the national leadership is taking, to initiate a soul-searching exercise and to recommend reforms.

"This core group could give new life and vigor to the administration coalition and its leaders," he said.

A similar group called "Third Force" has been suggested by Roco and two other PPC leaders, former Defense Secretary Renato de Villa, who heads Reporma, and former Cebu Gov. Lito Osmeña, who is president of the Probinsiya Muna Development Initiative.

Asked to which PPC faction he would belong, Villarama said he certainly is an idealist.

"I don’t like many of the things I hear and see about this administration, but as of now, we in Aksyon are supporting Mrs. Arroyo," he said.

There have been speculations that the President would eventually abandon Lakas, the biggest PPC party-member of which she is co-national chairman, and seek the presidency in 2004 under Kabalikat ng Mamamayang Pilipino (Kampi).

Kampi is the political party she formed in 1998 with Sen. Vicente Sotto III. She was then planning to run for president with Sotto as her vice presidential running mate.

She eventually abandoned her presidential plans, dumped Sotto and agreed to be the running mate of Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., who was Lakas standard bearer.

As fate would have it, De Venecia lost to then Vice President Joseph Estrada and then Senator Arroyo won the vice presidency. She would later ascend to the highest post in the land when Estrada fell from power amid a corruption scandal.

Speculations that she would run under Kampi were fueled by the recent revival of her own political party by her chief image builder and public relations handler, businessman Dante Ang.

Shortly after resurrecting the erstwhile dormant and marginalized Kampi, Ang announced that it would go on a nationwide fund-raising and recruitment campaign.

Villarama and other supporters of Mrs. Arroyo have urged her to disband Kampi.