Peping, Tingting, the NTC and Copa
THESE are interesting times for President Noynoy Aquino. His uncle, former Tarlac congressman Jose “Peping” Cojuangco has finally acquired the daring to come out as one of the personalities behind the National Transformation Council (NTC). Is he thinking that PNoy is more vulnerable now than he was when the NTC first made noise last year?
I suspected Peping to be behind the NTC when his wife, former Tarlac governor Margarita “Tingting” Cojuangco, started openly sniping at the President last year. But I thought that Peping, being the brother of PNoy’s mother Cory, would not openly criticize his nephew.
Tingting ran for senator in 2013 not with the Liberal Party (LP) but with the opposition United Nationalist Alliance (UNA). She lost and was obviously bitter about it because she questioned the integrity of the Precinct Count Optical Scan (Pcos) machines used in the polls since 2010. But she hasn’t been able to show evidence to prove her claims.
Tingting’s running with UNA showed where her heart and the heart of her husband lay. Peping was supposedly one of the prime movers of the Noy-Bi campaign in 2010, meaning he was pushing for the candidacy of his nephew in tandem with UNA’s vice presidential bet Jejomar Binay. Note that at that time Aquino’s running mate in the LP was Mar Roxas.
The Noy-Bi faction of those supporting the candidacy of Noynoy Aquino for president effectively scuttled Roxas’s chances of winning. It took away from him the support of a chunk of the yellow crowd. That was the start of the “namamangka sa dalawang ilog” politics of Binay—he professes to be pro-PNoy but is actually with the opposition.
Between Peping and Tingting, the latter is the one who has been actively participating in the activities of the NTC. Remember the NTC? It is the same group that calls for Aquino’s resignation every time it got the chance. It made Archbishop Emeritus Ricardo Cardinal Vidal the “reader” of its declarations against PNoy, first in October last year and this month. Its leaders are a mix of religious and dubious personalities.
The website punto.com.ph posted an article in December last year claiming that Peping had accepted an invi- tation to attend a meeting of the NTC that month. At that time, he declined to comment on NTC calls for PNoy to resign but said he was interested in the reforms peddled by the group. That was in December. Now he is openly calling for the resignation of his nephew.
Incidentally, Peping and Tingting are also the prime movers of the Council on Philippine Affairs (Copa), whose members include Pastor “Boy” Saycon, whose name has been linked to some anti-government activities in the past. Copa styles itself as a discussion group but some of its members are known political operators whatever the political weather.
A gmanetwork.com report posted on Feb. 14, 2015 had Saycon admitting that he met with elements of the Special Action Force (SAF) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) together with Tingting. Forty-four members of the SAF died in a clash with Muslim rebels in Maguidanao last Jan. 25.
Saycon said of that meeting: "Marami daw nag-iimbita...na mag- withdraw ng support (from the Aquino government). Sabi ko nga sa kanila, remain in the chain of command. Do not be enticed."
While I would give Saycon and Tingting the benefit of the doubt, I am mentioning this to illustrate how political operators work. Copa and the NTC may be marginal groups, but its leaders know whom to reach out to for greater political and propaganda impact and to advance their cause.