Lakas-Kampi merger legal, Palace exec insists in Comelec hearing

Proper consultations were made before the Lakas-Christian-Muslim Democrats merged with the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi) last May, a Malacañang official said on Thursday. In the first and only hearing of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) on a petition to nullify the merger, presidential political adviser Gabriel Claudio stood as a hostile witness and belied claims made by the petitioner, Pangasinan Rep. Jose de Venecia. Claudio even turned the tables on De Venecia, saying it was the former House speaker who first pushed for the merger of the two parties. “Mister De Venecia himself was the prime mover of the merger. He had signed a document for the merger of the two parties as early as 1998 and since then has been pushing for the official merger until he lost the speakership," Claudio told reporters after the two-hour hearing.
In a separate interview also after the hearing, De Venecia admitted that he was in favor of the merger provided that it was done “properly, correctly (and) legally." He however said it was President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, and not him, who first asked for the merger. “Gaby Claudio twisted it a bit. It was President Arroyo who sought the merger, who begged us for the merger between Lakas and Kampi because she was begging to be my vice president," he said. President Arroyo was De Venecia’s running mate in the 1998 elections. De Venecia fell from Malacañang's grace February last year after his son, Jose “Joey" de Venecia III, implicated First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo in an allegedly anomalous multimillion dollar deal with China’s ZTE Corp. He subsequently stepped down as president of Lakas-CMD, which he founded in 1992 to support the presidential bid of then Defense Secretary Fidel Ramos. In his petition filed last month, De Venecia said the merger violated the Lakas party's charter as there was no national assembly convened for the purpose. He also said Lakas did not ratify the action of its national directorate to enter into a merger as required by its constitution. In an interview with GMANews.TV, President Arroyo’s election lawyer, Romeo Macalintal, said they presented documents to the Comelec to prove their claim. “We conducted meetings in municipalities with duly represented party officials. Everything was duly documented," Macalintal, who attended the hearing, said over the phone. Macalintal expressed confidence that the Comelec would come up with a resolution in favor of the merged Lakas-Kampi-CMD party. - GMANews.TV