Tarlac City LDP bets abort defection to Poe

TARLAC CITY — The local faction of the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) identified with independent presidential aspirant Sen. Panfilo Lacson, has aborted plans to defect to the camp of action star Fernando Poe Jr., the opposition’s main standard bearer.

Mayoral candidate and incumbent Vice Mayor Miguel Tañedo denied that he and his fellow candidates in the LDP-Lacson wing were junking Lacson in favor of Poe.

In mid-April, Tañedo reportedly tried to forge a compromise deal with opposition Sen. Tessie Aquino-Oreta, a key Poe supporter, in order for the Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP) to withdraw its support for the local slate of the Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) and instead back his line-up.

PMP, the political party of jailed former President Joseph Estrada, Poe’s bosom friend, has fielded former city mayor Gelacio Manalang as its mayoral bet.

Manalang, who served as city mayor for nine consecutive years until 2001, was one of the provincial politicians who helped form the KNP late last year. He also played a significant role in putting up Poe’s local machinery in Tarlac.

Tañedo and his ticket’s planned defection to the Poe camp came when Manalang asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to declare LDP bets in this city "independents" on grounds that their party nomination was "illegal."

Like Lacson, the nomination papers of Tañedo and his partymates were merely signed by Makati City Rep. Agapito Aquino, LDP secretary general and Sen. Aquino-Oreta’s brother. The vice mayor is a close relative of the Aquinos.

But late February, the Supreme Court ruled that only Sen. Edgardo Angara, LDP president and one of the KNP founders, has the sole authority to endorse and nominate the party’s official bets.

Despite the aborted defection, a local weekly, the Tarlac Standard, said Tañedo is facing "sanctions for acts of disloyalty" from Lacson’s camp.

The paper quoted leaders of the local Lacson camp as saying they were "exceedingly disappointed" by Tañedo’s overtures to the Poe camp.

Tañedo and Manalang are challenging the re-election of Mayor Genaro Mendoza of the Lakas-CMD (Christian-Muslim Democrats).