Lakas-CMD elected new President; PGMA proposes the merger of Lakas and Kampi

Ma. Lourdes “Miami” Ebilane
March 10, 2008
Story: Lakas-CMD elected new President; PGMA proposes the merger of Lakas and Kampi

The Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats held their National Directorate meeting at the Manila Hotel on March 10, 2008 wherein they elect new officers for their party. But what is most significant is the change of its President.

During the meeting, the lawyer of former House Speaker Jose de Venecia, Atty. Raul Lambino, manifested that de Venecia is already resigning as President of the Lakas-CMD. De Venecia is the founder of the party together with the late Secretary of Foreign Affairs Raul Manglapuz and former President Fidel Ramos. He was also the party president since 1992.

De Venecia did not attend the meeting, based on earlier reports he will not attend the meeting because he will not do anything on the said meeting. But the former Speaker was elected as President Emeritus. But according to Lambino the position is only a honorary post that need not to be accepted.

Lambino also added that de Venecia only decided on resigning before the meeting started and de Venecia asked him to represent him at the meeting.

Senator Miguel Zubiri said, “JDV was elected to a higher position. It was like an honorary doctorate position. He has a better position.” But for JDV’s lawyer, “he does not need to accept anything, this is an honorary title, the party is merely recognizing him but he is not aspiring for it.”

Zubiri on his part said that the night before the meeting, De Venecia and him talk and the former speaker assures him that he will not oppose the meeting and even the re organization. “In fairness to him, he did not ask for any position,” Zubiri told the media about de Venecia.

During their meeting, all the position was declared vacant by. Cong. Simeon Datumanong then followed by elections. The party elected House Speaker Prospero Nograles to be their new President. The elected Executive Vice-President was Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte; there were two elected Senior Vice-President, they were Sen. Ramon Revilla, Jr. and Sen. Manuel “Lito” Lapid.

Their closed door meeting started at around 9:00 am and was finished at 12:00 noon. They resumed at around 1:00 pm upon the arrival of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to present the new set of officers.

During the President’s speech, she congratulated the new president of the party and said, “With your leadership, CMD will be in very able and worthy hands. A bar topnotcher, a leader of Mindanao and now Speaker of the House, you have the qualities, experience and stature not only to uphold the lofty traditions of our party but also of our country.”

On her speech also, he propose the merger of Lakas and her own political party KAMPI, “With the Lakas-Kampi merger, our energies can be devoted to the strong and growing economy which is the central pillar our party has labored to create to help guarantee peace, order and stability in our country. This is our motivation for getting up everyday to work hard and focus like a laser beam to fix our economy.”

With this, according to Zubiri, many Lakas member are still not in favour of the merger, “some of the hindrances aside from the local level politics is who will be the survivor party, Lakas definitely has to be the survivor party being that we are the older political party and being recognized in the world, also even billing of names. When we merge, are we going to be Lakas CMD-Kampi? But it’s worth a try.”

Speaker Nograles also said that it is difficult to that very soon because of the political interest of the members of the Party, “while they may not be in conflict with the political interest nationally there may be some conflict of interest in the local provincial city or municipal level. That is something that we have to identify also.”

However, de Venecia is not in favour of the Lakas-Kampi merger. According to Lambino, the former Speaker consider this as, “kiss of death because of the President’s unpopularity and lack of credibility.”

Lambino said, that de Venecia will continue to be critical of the Arroyo administration whenever he will see or observe some illegalities. “He will be an ordinary member of Lakas that would act as the conscience of the party.”

Zubiri said, if JDV will be critical with the administration, they will accept it because they have different views and opinion as individuals and his criticism will not trigger the party.