MANILA – Former Philippine president Fidel Ramos and 50 other supporters announced their breakaway from a new ruling coalition that was formed from the merger of two political parties that support the Arroyo administration.
Ramos said that joining him in the “revolution,†were many original members of the Lakas Christian Muslim Democrats (CMD) which merged with another administration party, the “Kaakbay ng Malayang Pilipino†(Kampi or Partners of the Free Filipinos).
Ramos and then speaker Jose de Venecia of the House of Representatives founded Lakas along with the late senator Raul Manglapus. Ramos used Lakas to launch his successful presidential bid in the 1992 elections.
On the other hand, Kampi was founded by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her supporters for her also successful campaign for the vice presidency in the 1998 polls which saw the election of then president Joseph Estrada.
The Ramos-led revolt appears to have made a major dent in the unity of the new political party, the Lakas-CMD Kampi, whose merger was presided over by President Arroyo herself in a hotel in Metro Manila on May 28.
With the merger, administration supporters said the new party would become a major political force to reckon with in the 2010 polls because it has in its roster most of the country’s governors and congressmen.
But Ramos said he and the other 50 members, calling themselves the Lakas Originals, decided to break away as they found the merger illegal as well as null and void.
In a statement released after a meeting at the residence of De Venecia in suburban Makati City, Metro Manila on Tuesday, the group quoted Ramos as saying that the merger was illegal because it was not approved by the Lakas national assembly as provided in the party rules and regulations.
The Lakas Originals said they have formed a committee that will decide which political party with which they will coalesce as well as the presidential candidate they will support in 2010.
The announcement gained even more significance when Senator Benigno “Noynoy†Aquino 3rd, the son of the late global democracy icon president Corazon “Tita (Auntie) Cory†Aquino, announced on Wednesday that he would run for president in 2010.
A reliable source from the Lakas Originals disclosed it is not “far-fetched†that Ramos and his group would enter into a coalition with the Liberal Party which will make Noynoy its standard bearer.
The source, who requested anonymity because he is not allowed to speak to media on the issue, explained that Tita Cory’s support proved vital in the election of Ramos as president in the 1992 polls.
He added that the merger appeared to be in trouble when Ramos himself announced he was not accepting the offer to be the chairman emeritus of the new political party.
Instead, Ramos said he would keep his post as the Lakas chairman emeritus because he did not recognize the legality of the merger.
As such, the former president said that Lakas remains the country’s dominant political party as recognized by the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
Earlier, De Venecia, who was ousted as House speaker and president of Lakas because he had a falling out with President Arroyo, petitioned the Comelec to declare the merger as illegal and Lakas as the dominant political party.
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