Guingona won’t join opposition

Vice President Teofisto Guingona, who resigned as president and member of the ruling Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) party last Friday, said yesterday he may play the role of "fiscalizer" but will not join the opposition.

He also declined to comment on repeated questions of whether he will support the presidential bid President Arroyo declared in Pampanga yesterday.

Speaking at the Kapihan sa Sulo press forum in Quezon City hours before Mrs. Arroyo made the announcement, Guingona made light of Malacañang’s pronouncements that the President sought "divine intervention" before deciding to run next year.

"She was supposed to have spoken to God and God was supposed to have spoken to her. The problem is, God has not spoken with me," he quipped. "I talked to God, but he did not answer me."

Instead of stating whether he will support Mrs. Arroyo’s presidential bid, Guingona reiterated parts of his resignation letter reminding the President of her Dec. 30, 2004 announcement that she will not run for president in 2004.

In his letter, Guingona said he respected the President’s decision not to run for president in 2004 "because you would focus on reforms badly needed by the nation. Unfortunately, these reforms have not materialized. The people are bedeviled by corruption worse compounded, which vitally erodes our economy, deepening the poverties of our people."

The current position of the ruling party on national issues was, for Guingona, "especially agonizing" to those who helped install Mrs. Arroyo at the helm of government after the military-backed popular revolt, now known as Edsa II, ousted former President Joseph Estrada, who is now on trial for corruption.

During the forum, Guingona said he has "no plans... for the moment," when asked if he will join the 2004 presidential race.

Guingona also said he "hoped to unite the nation and heal the wounds of the past.

As an independent, Guingona said, he will fiscalize the Arroyo administration.

"It will be a one-sided thing. If she does something good, then I will praise her. I will not be like the opposition, who oppose her at every turn," he said.

Whether his resignation has weakened the administration party, he said, is "not for me to say. It should be the people who should say that."

The Vice President has been at loggerheads with party officials who demanded that he be made to explain his opposition to the party line on issues like Charter change, the Jose Pidal controversy and the deployment of United States troops in Mindanao under the RP-US Visiting Forces agreement (VFA) and the Arroyo administration’s support for the US-led war in Iraq.

Guingona replied he was ready to resign from the ruling party rather than be forced to toe the party line on national issues that go against his convictions and principles.

The Vice President also said an Arroyo-Guingona tandem for the May 2004 national elections is an "impossible dream."

Visibly more at ease, though unwilling to speak of his future political plans, Guingona expressed relief that he is again an independent. "I am now free to speak out and do my own thing without the constraints of Lakas," he said.

He raised the possibility of being the "third force" in the country’s political scene, but did not identify the kindred spirits with whom he may ally himself.

The Vice President said he has kept himself busy by pursuing advocacies, such as the rehabilitation of Mindanao and the flotation of bonds for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

In Davao City, Davao del Norte Gov. and Southern Mindanao regional party chairman Rodolfo del Rosario said "Lakas remains strong and unfazed, even with the resignations" of Guingona and Senate Majority Leader and Lakas-CMD vice president for the Visayas Loren Legarda.

Del Rosario said officials of the Lakas-CMD national directorate met yesterday to address the problems affecting the party, including those spawned by the resignations of Guingona and Legarda.

"That’s a natural consequence in a party considering the fact that the President announced she was not running," he said. "The other members would have already made other arrangements with other parties" for their own political survival.

He also expressed confidence that the problem of party unity will be resolved and the ruling party strengthened anew by the President’s announcement of her candidacy in 2004.

"Things (will) change in the next few days and there will be very positive developments for Lakas," del Rosario said. — with reports from Pamela Samia, Edith Regalado