The Philippine Online Chronicles

Invoking the mantra of uniting everyone could really mean getting into touchy issues, as Nacionalista Party (NP) standard bearer Manuel “Manny” Villar Jr.’s experience proves.

Villar, who has repeatedly issued his call for unity in diversity, was reported to receive support from former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn “Jocjoc” Bolante, the main character implicated in the P728-million fertilizer fund scam in 2007.

Ugyon Kita Capiz (UKC), a local party pushing for Bolante’s gubernatorial candidacy in the province of Capiz, has expressed support for Villar and her running mate Sen. Loren Legarda, GMANews.tv reported. Asked if NP will reciprocate Ugyon Kita Capiz’s support, Villar said the talks are at the level of the mayors only.

It can be remembered that Villar ordered the Senate sergeant-at-arms to arrest Bolante upon his return to the Philippines from the United States in October 2008.

An Inquirer.net article, meanwhile, reported that a tarpaulin poster in the town of Saipan in Capiz showed Villar was supporting Bolante for governor, and that a local mayor was the one who put it up “with the knowledge of both Villar and Bolante.” But Villar denied claims that there are talks, negotiations for Bolante’s support for NP or middle men doing talks, a Daily Tribune report said.

Amid the stir created by opposing claims on Bolante’s alleged support for NP, Legarda came out with a statement denying support for Bolante’s candidacy, but clarified that she has “publicly announced my support for the candidacy of some mayors running for reelection in the province of Capiz, including that of Roxas City Mayor Vicente Bermejo.”

Legarda was referring to her support to the mayoralty bid of UKC members, who are Bolante’s partymates. UKC, on the other hand, clarified that the controversial former undersecretary is “not yet included in the list of candidates to be supported by NP.”

But a separate report cited that Bolante is also supported by Liberal Party and Lakas-Kampi-CMD candidates in the locality.

from Facebook posted by user ingatsaTRAPO2010.

Hero’s burial for a dictator?

By apparently taking strict care in handling allegations of an alliance with Bolante, the NP pack gracefully walked away from the issue.

At the sideline of NP’s campaign sortie in Cebu City last Feb. 21, Villar issued a touchy statement which once again bared the differences in his party’s senatorial lineup.

Villar said he sees no problem with allowing the late Ferdinand E. Marcos to get buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Heroes’ Grave) in Taguig City, GMANews.tv reported. The late dictator’s son, Rep. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., is running for senator under Villar’s NP.

Marcos’s corpse is now in a refrigerated crypt in the Marcos family mausoleum in the village cemetery in Batac, Ilocos Norte province after being denied burial at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

Expectedly, Marcos Jr. welcomed Villar’s support for a hero’s burial for his father. He said in a same press briefing that his family feels that “it is justice delayed but nevertheless, the wheels of justice turned slowly but they turned well."

NP senatorial candidates Rep. Satur Ocampo of Bayan Muna and Rep. Liza Maza of Gabriela, however, openly contested the idea. “We don’t find any reason to change our position. Hundreds of thousands suffered under martial law and we continue to believe that many issues still remain unresolved,” said Ocampo, who experienced first-hand the Marcos dictatorship when he was jailed during martial law.

In November last year, the two progressive solons under Makabayan coalition expressed reservations in joining Villar’s senatorial lineup due to NP’s alliance with Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL), the late dictator’s party. The alliance was later dissolved, thus banishing the complications which Ocampo and Maza were pointing out.

Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III of Liberal Party, for his part, rejected the idea of allowing a state and hero’s burial for the late dictator. He said Marcos does not deserve to be buried at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

But this statement was quickly criticized by Marcos Jr, saying Aquino flip-flopped on his position. “I wonder why he [Aquino] has issued a new position. Because when I met him in Isabela and asked him on the idea of a hero’s burial for my father at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, he said he will put his feelings aside and that he will create a commission to study the proposal,” Marcos Jr. said in Filipino in an abs-cbnnews.com article.

Marcos Jr.’s claim is supported by a Philstar.com report, which verified that Aquino promised Ilocanos that if elected president, he would form a commission to study the proposal to give a hero’s burial for Marcos. Suddenly, the table was turned against Aquino, who has not responded to Marcos Jr’s allegation.

Whether it is sheer luck or effective damage control, Villar always manages to untangle the complications that he makes in his bid to unify diverse, even conflicting, positions. So far, his mantra of unity in diversity has not led him to serious danger.

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