Manila ‘Liberals’ gang up on Roxas for inviting Lim to join LP

MANILA, Philippines — Manila councilors claiming to be the real “Liberals" on Tuesday ganged up on Sen. Manuel Roxas for inviting city mayor Alfredo Lim to join the Liberal Party (LP). Roxas, the recognized president of the Philippines’ second oldest political party, had said Lim was welcomne to join LP after the mayor was dislodged as president of the Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) of disgraced for president Joseph Estrada last week. Estrada said he was taking over the party leadership since Lim was too busy. The Manila councilors said Roxas’ attempt to get Lim join LP only shows his “ignorance, if not arrogance" to the local issues facing Lim’s administration. “Here we go again. Just a few members of the LP are making party decisions without even consulting its members. With really no respect for the majority, this miniscule groups is again dragging the whole party to their selfish intentions to fulfill their personal agenda," said Letlet Zarcal, councilor of Manila’s 3rd district and majority leader of the Manila City Council. Lim got embroiled with the city council earlier this month when he ordered the forcible takeover of the Vitas Slaughterhouse in Tondo district over the firm’s alleged failure to pay taxes and for violating environment and sanitation laws. Police physically carried Councilor Dennis Alcoreza, owner of the slaughterhouse, out of the slaughterhouse after he tried to stop the takeover. Zarcal said Roxas did not even think that Alcorezais himself a member of the LP. Councilor Marlon Lacson of Manila’s 2nd district said Roxas’ invitation to Lim was an insult to the city’s Liberals. “We are the Liberal Party in Manila. We are 24 Liberals in the City Council, and we have already disengaged with Lim’s administration due to the atrocities happening all over Manila that even our colleagues have been victims of Lim," he said. COouncilo Joy Dawis-Asuncion of the 6th distric and Jo Quintos of the 4th district said Roxas’ was “another major misrepresentation" — which, they added, “has become a bad habit of the small LP faction where Roxas is affiliated with." The Atienza-led LP faction asserted that the split of the party was caused by the misrepresentation made by then Senate President Franklin Drilon and his “gang of five" on July 8, 2005 when they railroaded a party decision calling for the ouster of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, without even consulting its members. The rivalry between the two factions came to a head when Atienza and other allies of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo held a rump convention at the Manila Hotel in 2006 and ousted Drilon and other national party leaders. Last year, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Drilon faction, which later on installed Roxas as its president. Atienza’s faction in Manila, however, continue to challenge Roxas’ leadership, challenging him to call an election by all members of the LP in order to settle the leadership issue once and for all. “To finally know who we (LP members) really want to lead the party, why don’t we call for a general assembly and hold an election. We believe that this is the most democratic way of finally settling the leadership issue in the party," Zarcal proposed. Dawis-Asuncion, on the other hand, advised Roxas that if he aspires to lead the country, he must first abide by the democratic principles of the party and unite the LP. - GMANews.TV