Malacañang on Saturday downplayed former President Joseph Estrada’s criticisms against the ruling Liberal Party’s plan to form a coalition with the Nacionalista Party and the Nationalist People’s Coalition for the 2013 elections.

Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the criticism was part of Estrada’s “gearing up” for the 2013 campaign, even as he said the LP is doing the same thing.

“I think former President Estrada is gearing up for the campaign. What the LP is doing now is gearing up for the campaign for the elections in 2013,” he said on government-run dzRB radio.

But he declined to comment further on Estrada’s criticism, saying he was not in a position to say anything about it.

Instead, he said transportation secretary Manuel Roxas II, who ran for vice president but was defeated in 2010 by Estrada’s running mate Jejomar Binay, should answer such questions.

Lacierda also said budget secretary Florencio Abad may be in a position to answer such claims, including whether the Palace is standing by its claims against Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. during the 2010 elections campaign period.

Villar heads the Nacionalista Party (NP), which is part of the coalition being assembled by President Benigno Aquino III's LP.

In the 2010 presidential campaign, Aquino’s camp had coined the term “Villarroyo” to suggest Villar was in cahoots with then President Gloria Arroyo, whose growing unpopularity had been seen as her "kiss of death."

The “Villarroyo” brand had been blamed for Villar’s defeat.

But when asked if the Palace will stand by its allegations against Villar in 2010, Lacierda said, “Let Secretary Roxas and Secretary Abad answer that.”

Estrada had scored LP for allegedly “pirating” senatorial candidates from his United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) in assembling a new coalition for LP.

The LP is cobbling a coalition with the NP of Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. and the NPC for the 2013 polls.

“Just like what happened to Villar. He pirated. He lost just the same,” Estrada said on his Twitter account Saturday.

A report on the Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Estrada as saying he did not like the LP mentioning Sen. Lorna Regina “Loren” Legarda and Sen. Gregorio Honasan II as possible senatorial candidates.

Legarda and Honasan had earlier been drafted by the UNA of Estrada and Binay.

Estrada noted Villar, who ran for president in 2010, had also raided the ranks of other parties – and even adopted orange, Estrada’s political color, as his own – but still lost. — LBG, GMA News