Pnoy, Villar ‘agree in principle’
Former bitter political rivals President Benigno Aquino III and Senator Manuel Villar will likely become comrades in the 2013 elections.
On Tuesday, Budget Secretary Butch Abad said Aquino and Villar have agreed “in principle” to form a coalition between the administration’s Liberal Party (LP) and the Nacionalista Party (NP).
“There has been a meeting between the President and Senator Villar where the agreement in principle to coalesce was forged,” Abad said during a briefing in Malacañang.
Aquino is chairman of LP while Villar is president of NP.
Abad said the next step is for the two parties to discuss the “basis” for the coalition and the slate it will eventually field in the 2013 midterm polls.
“The next step is really for the discussion on the details... Next week we will resume our coalition talks,” he said.
Abad, a senior member of LP, explained that there were “intermediaries” who brought the idea to Aquino that NP was interested in forging a coalition.
“One of them was Congressman Ed Gullas of Cebu who has been instrumental in making the discussion possible,” he said.
During the 2010 national elections, LP accused Villar of corruption because of his role in the controversial C-5 extension project, supposedly to benefit his real estate properties.
The party also accused Villar of being the secret candidate of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Villar had repeatedly denied such allegation.
Abad, however, said they wish to “move forward” from issues two years ago.
“In the heat of battle these things come up... That’s the atmosphere that usually comes up during elections. Those things come up and after the election, everything is finished and you move forward and you deal with what you have to deal with,” he said.
“If there have been differences in the past, the President and Sen. Villar said those are the past and we need to look at this partnership looking forward,” he added.