JdV tells Kampi: Leave Lakas alone
“I WON’T let my party sink like the Titanic.”
Fourth District Rep. Jose de Venecia Jr. has revealed his plan to rescue and revive the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats, a party he co-founded, and has since merged with the administration’s Kabalikat ng Mamamayang Pilipino (Kampi).
Interviewed by newsmen after addressing a program during the inauguration of the new Dagupan City Police Station, De Venecia said he is working on a plan with former President Fidel Ramos, his co-founder of the Lakas-CMD. They and the late Foreign Affairs Secretary Raul Manglapus formed the triumvirate of the party’s leadership.
“What I am trying to do along with Ex-President Ramos is to rescue our party, to retrieve the Lakas-CMD before it sinks into the ocean, like the Titanic”, said De Venecia.
De Venecia said their proposal is for those in the Kampi to get their own party and leave Lakas-CMD alone.
De Venecia noted that the merged Lakas-Kampi-CMD is now being affected by “a massive crossing of the river”.
He was referring to the recent series of desertions by prominent leaders of the merged parties, among them was Governor Joey Salceda of Sorsogon, one of the economic advisers of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who switched to the Liberal Party.
He said the union between Lakas-CMD and Kampi, which from the outset received resistance among party leaders, did not work and the only practical solution left is for the two merged parties to part ways.
“Why would I want to get my party back. Why am I passionate of getting our party back? It is because it is the only party in the world that put Muslims and Christians together under one roof in a common political house,” said De Venecia, who is now on his third and last term in Congress.
He said that as early as 1991, with Ramos and Manglapus, he saw that the big challenge in the 2lst century is the Christian-Muslim conflict or the Christian-Muslim divide.
He went on to say that the he said, in the Christian-Muslim conflict in Mindanao, Aceh, Indonesia; Somalia, Ethiopia, Palestine, Sudan, among others is the formation of a party like Lakas-CMD that would bring together Christian Muslim democrats under one political house.
Asked when he plans to retake Lakas from what he called “usurpers of the party”, he said it would be a miracle to see it happens before the election but maintained it can happen.
But if this is not possible, then it has to wait after the election, he said.
He also said that he has nothing against the administration party standard bearer Gilbert Teodoro whom he described as a “good man”, but the main problem is that “the marriage between Lakas-CMD and Kampi is not working”.–LM
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