Shoud we give our trust

Whatever they do, they cannot weaken the Lakas-Kampi-CMD.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita and presidential adviser Gabriel Claudio, together with Chairman Prospero Pichay of the Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA) are doing a dirty scheme for their vested political interesets.

They are uniting their effort to draft Batangas Governor Vilma Santos Recto as vice presidential candidate of the ruling Lakas-Kampi-CMD.

This, despite the fact Ate Vi has stated it very clearly before she left for Canada to promote her recent movie “In My Life.” Ate Vi made this clear: “Batangas politics Is My Life.” And definitely not the vice-presidential or VP post. Ate Vi had made up her mind. She would stay at the Capitol in Batangas.

First political interest. Astute political analyst and former presidential adviser Lito Banayo said in his Malaya column, Ermita will be “hitting two birds with one shot” with this scheme because (1) he will be able to elbow out Puno from the VP slot, and with “Ate Vi” leaving Batangas to be Teodoro’s runningmate, (2) his daughter—Rep. Eileen Ermita Buhain who is on her third and last term as Batangas congressperson—will have a chance to become governor come 2010.

The three continue with their tactic despite the fact that the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD had expressed its preferences for national office–Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro for president and Ronaldo “Ronnie” Puno for VP.

Second political interest. This Gibo-Ronnie tandem has apparently scared the wits out of opposition leaders and strategists because as soon as this team was announced by Claudio (yes, him) at the end of the NEC meeting last Sept. 16, their spin doctors and hacks in the media started vilifying the two as candidates who can win next year only by large-scale electoral fraud.

In effect, the feckless brokering of Ermita, Claudio and Pichay will have the effect of weakening the party, dragging down its morale and sending the wrong message to the people to divert the people’s trust to their supported party.

The people should ponder on this. Will we allow the other party to manipulate our minds so we’d give them our trust which the Lakas-Kampi-CMD had genuinely earned from us?