Lakas to drop GMA's Kampi

MANILA, Philippines - Former pro-administration Lakas-Christian and Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) will divorce itself from former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi) and consolidate its ranks in preparation for the 2013 and 2016 elections, the party’s spokesman said yesterday.

Raul Lambino, also deputy secretary-general of Lakas-CMD, said the acronym Kampi would be officially dropped during the party’s national council meeting on May 11 that Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr., Lakas-CMD national president, would preside over.

“We will also elect our new chairperson and other officials in the vacant posts,” he said.

However, Lambino said Arroyo, who is detained at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City on charges of electoral sabotage, would remain honorary chair of Lakas-CMD.

Kampi in effect no longer has any ties with Lakas-CMD as many of its members have either switched loyalties to the pro-administration Liberal Party or formed the new pro-administration National Unity Party, he added.

The move to endorse senatorial candidates of the United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) of Vice President Jejomar Binay and former President Joseph Estrada has not yet been firmed up, he added.

House of Representatives Minority Leader Danilo Suarez, Lakas-CMD vice chairman, said the party would support the UNA senatorial slate for the 2013 elections after the new political bloc had adopted two of its members –Reps. Milagros Magsaysay of Zambales and Lani Mercado-Revilla of Cavite.

Lambino said proposals from party members to coalesce with UNA for the 2013 election remain mere proposals.

“There are also proposals to support the lineup of other parties, or to even choose from the various states the candidates Lakas will be campaigning for,” he said.

Magsaysay and Revilla are reportedly running for senator.

However, Lambino denied that Revilla was aiming for the Senate.

“As far as I know, they (Revilla family) have not even entertained such a thought,” he said.

Lakas-CMD will “go all-out” for Magsaysay’s Senate candidacy, he added.

Former President Fidel Ramos and former House speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. founded Lakas under a slightly different name 1991.

In 1997, Arroyo and her political allies founded Kampi.

The two parties merged twice in 1998 and 2009 with Arroyo as national chair.

Ramos and De Venecia questioned the last merger.