The Philippine Online Chronicles

A reportedly inevitable party merger is now being delayed by disagreements on who will be the standard bearers of the resulting group.

Merger talks between administration-allied Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) and Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi) started Friday last week, when Lakas-CMD president and House Speaker Prospero Nograles agreed to submit on Tuesday his group's representatives to the national consolidation and unification committee, which was formed to guide merger proceedings, the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) reported.

“That's an indication that [Kampi is] ready to sit down and talk. This [merger] is not a mission impossible,” committee chair Gabriel Claudio told PDI in a phone interview.

However, Lakas-CMD, the “bigger and older of the two parties,” wants majority control and a “bigger say in decision making” on who will be the official local elections-level candidates of the merged party, PDI said. Kampi is allegedly refusing to move from its 50-50 demand.

“[Lakas-CMD is] twice as big as [Kampi], it should be obvious who should be the surviving party in the merger. We will not settle for anything less than control,” La Union Rep. Victor Ortega told PDI in an interview.

Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez of Kampi has a different take on the issue. “[Lakas-CMD] might boast of quantity but it’s the quality of the leaders that matters. So far, Kampi has proved to be the more vocal and aggressive in pushing for national issues,” he said.

In a separate report, PDI said that Lakas-CMD has narrowed down to four choices for a possible standard bearer in the 2010 presidential election.

Lakas-CMD secretary general and Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri declined to name the four contenders, but said that they are “all perceived to be presidentiables” and “include a lady,” PDI noted. The four candidates were reportedly picked from a list of 10 possible candidates by Lakas officials during the party's executive committee meeting held last week at the Holiday Inn Resort in Clark Field, Pampanga.

The joining of Lakas-CMD and Kampi has been lauded as the means by which to end the administration's attempts at charter change, GMA News said.

According to Press Secretary Cerge Remonde, the union is “already an indication that proponents of Charter change who are mostly administration party members are having second thoughts about constitutional amendments.”

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo had reportedly urged the two parties to iron out their merger in time for the 2010 polls despite the opposition's accusation that the palace was being insensitive to the plight of Filipinos by focusing on the elections instead of addressing economic issues, GMA News reported.

Photo: Cropped “handshake I” by oooh.oooh, taken from Flickr.com. Licensed under Creative Commons license number by-nc-sa-2.0-deed.en.
Video: “Regional Consultation and Caucus on LAKAS/CMD-KAMPI Merger” uploaded by RTV Malacanang to YouTube.com.