New alliance boosts Roco’s 2004 poll bid

Three political parties formalized their alliance yesterday to boost former senator Raul Roco’s second bid for the presidency in the May elections.

Roco’s Aksyon Demokratiko inked a "solidarity of pact" — dubbed Alyansa ng Pag-asa (Alliance of Hope) — with Reporma and Probinsiya Muna Development Initiative or Promdi.

Former Armed Forces chief Renato de Villa, who heads Reporma, resigned yesterday as President Arroyo’s adviser for strategic concerns to help in Roco’s presidential campaign.

"Together with our parties, we have crossed the bridge for our country and for our people. We now formally endorse the candidacy of Raul Roco," De Villa told a small crowd at Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan.

Promdi is headed by former Cebu governor Lito Osmeña.

It was not immediately known if Mrs. Arroyo has accepted De Villa’s resignation, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said.

"Definitely that’s a very important position. And as in any resignation, especially if we have worked very closely with the person involved, we feel a sense of loss whenever this happens," Bunye said. "He has rendered valuable advice to the President."

De Villa is the second to resign from Mrs. Arroyo’s Cabinet in three days. Last Friday, Finance Secretary Jose Camacho announced he was leaving at the end of the month over frustration over the slow pace of fiscal reforms.

De Villa and Osmeña were among Roco’s rivals in the multi-corner 1998 presidential derby.

They formed their respective parties when they launched their bids for the presidency. Then vice president Joseph Estrada, a former action star, however, won by a landslide thanks to his celebrity status.

Roco, Osmeña and De Villa spearheaded what they called a "third force" to change the direction of Philippine politics after they lost to Estrada in the 1998 polls.

In a joint statement yesterday, the three leaders said they want their alliance to serve as a "foundation and banner for patriotic Filipinos disgusted with unabated corruption and bad governance and who earnestly aspire for good leadership and effective government."

"We will strive to make our alliance the springboard of a wider movement that will secure the benefits of our steadfast commitment to decent leadership, honest governance, truth and justice, peace, productivity and prosperity," the statement said.

"This alliance will also be the banner for rallying patriotic Filipinos who want to send a clear and unmistakable message in the 2004 elections: The Filipino nation must secure for itself competent and honest leaders or descend deeper into corruption and chaos," it said.

The three leaders added their alliance "will offer candidates fully qualified and able to meet the nation’s need at this darkening hour of our history."

"We’ll present an agenda of hope. We must profess our love for the Philippines, it’s the land of our birth. No one can love our country than us Filipinos," Roco told reporters.

Roco’s vice presidential running mate will be announced at the parties’ national convention on Nov. 30.

De Villa, Osmeña, Senate President Franklin Drilon, Senators Noli de Castro, Vicente Sotto III and Manuel Villar, and Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chairman Bayani Fernando are being eyed as possible running mates, Roco said.

He said he would make the economy and education his top priorities if elected.

Roco’s presidential bid got a major boost from De Villa and Osmeña as early as January when they endorsed him as the candidate of Mrs. Arroyo’s political alliance, the People Power Coalition, because Mrs. Arroyo was then not in the running and Roco consistently topped opinion surveys.

But officials of the coalition’s dominant party, the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats, said the coalition may pick someone else who also has a good chance of winning next year’s race, though it did not rule out picking Roco.

Aksyon Demokratiko, Reporma and Promdi were allied with the People Power Coalition, which helped topple Estrada in January 2001 and installed Mrs. Arroyo, who was then vice president.

Lakas was then in a quandary on who to field in the presidential election after Mrs. Arroyo withdrew from the 2004 polls last December so she could concentrate on revitalizing the Philippines’ sputtering economy.

However, she changed her mind in October, citing a clamor for her to rejoin the contest.

Roco made a strong showing in the 1998 presidential polls, raking in the women and youth votes and placing third despite the lack of political machinery.

He ran for senator in 1992 and was re-elected in 1995.

Mrs. Arroyo appointed Roco education secretary shortly after she replaced Estrada.

But in August last year, Roco stunned Malacañang when he resigned in a fit of anger after Mrs. Arroyo endorsed an investigation into his alleged improprieties for using Department of Education funds to publish posters bearing his photograph. He denied the accusation.

He complained that Mrs. Arroyo lacked the basic courtesy of informing him about the probe. He rejected Malacañang’s explanation that Mrs. Arroyo’s endorsement was merely routine.

It was speculated that Mrs. Arroyo — who was then planning to seek a full-six year term in 2004 — endorsed the investigation to decimate him in case he decided to bid for the presidency.

The speculation followed the results of an opinion poll by IBON Foundation — released on the same day that Mrs. Arroyo endorsed the probe — that showed Roco would trounce her if an election were held at the time the survey was conducted. — With Marichu Villanueva