Saturday Night At Malate

Opposition Thoughts Before SONA

Chiz calls Ping ‘spoiler,’ Jinggoy likens him to a ‘woman scorned’
By AUREA CALICA
The Philippine Star

The word war between the opposition continues as Senators Francis Escudero and Jinggoy Estrada lashed back at Sen. Panfilo Lacson for branding them as "political mongrels."

Escudero said Lacson is a "spoiler" while Estrada likened the senator to a "woman scorned."

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, who was among the three senators earlier branded by Lacson as "mongrels" for supporting the bid of Manuel Villar for Senate president, said he came close to fighting back.

Villar, on the other hand, kept his distance from the issue.

Escudero issued a statement claiming Lacson was a spoiler of the opposition "very much like what he did" in the 2004 presidential elections.

Escudero said Lacson ran against the late Fernando Poe Jr. instead of working for an opposition victory in 2004.

Escudero said he was not surprised by Lacson’s "rambunctious blabber" since the opposition senator has been always consistent.

"We embraced him (Lacson) in the United Opposition and the Genuine Opposition (GO) led by (former President Joseph) Erap (Estrada) and Jinggoy whom he had been attacking and maligning. He is destroying and breaking up the opposition just because we were not following what he wanted," Escudero said.

Lacson lashed out at Escudero, Estrada and Cayetano, for supporting Villar and coalescing with other senators who are perceived administration allies.

"We cannot allow him to do that again to the opposition," Escudero added.

Escudero said he would not dignify Lacson’s name-calling.

"I don’t agree with any form of name-calling. It just doesn’t help the cause of the opposition; neither will it help Lacson’s personal cause," he said.

Lacson, according to Escudero, is so fixated with the Senate presidency issue and committee assignments to the point of sacrificing the unity and strength of the opposition on several issues against the administration.

"I am opposition and will fight for the opposition even against self- proclaimed oppositionists who cannot sacrifice and let go of his own political agenda for the sake of the opposition," Escudero said.

Escudero said the issue of supporting Villar would not overtake his stand on other issues against the administration.

"The measure would be how one will sacrifice his own personal political agenda for the sake of unity in furthering the cause of the general public," Escudero said.

Estrada, for his part, said he would rather not involve himself in name-calling but he could not accept it sitting down.

"(Lacson) is like a woman who keeps on talking and talking," Estrada said.

He even joked that even if they were called mongrels, he could assure that their tails were okay.

Estrada said he was saddened by Lacson’s name-calling since it would cause disunity among opposition senators.

He claimed the opposition senators supporting Lacson would have a caucus Sunday. He did not identify them but said Lacson deliberately skipped the four of them for the gathering.

This article came out today at The Philippine Star. They are trying soooooooo hard to upstage each other causing a rift in their own faction. Now tell me how people can trust them if they themselves are biting each other's heads off?