Sotto: JV admitted that GO bets made impeach pact
By Joyce Pangco Pañares
ALL Genuine Opposition candidates made it a priority to impeach President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and signed a manifesto that committed them to it last December, an administration candidate said yesterday.
Team Unity candidate Vicente Sotto III said GO’s deputy campaign manager in Metro Manila, Joseph Victor Ejercito, admitted as much during a recent radio face-off.
“JV virtually confirmed that support for the impeachment was a prerequisite for candidates of GO,” Sotto said.
“I think he panicked. How could he deny the existence of the manifesto when I was just on the other line ready to rebutt him?” Sotto added. “All he managed to do was confirm that GO had no concrete platform except the removal of President Arroyo.”
Sotto said the manifesto was the reason he and former Senator Tessie Aquino Oreta decided to join Team Unity.
Sotto, the former campaign manager of the opposition in the 2004 elections, said his friend, the late presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr., would not have approved of the opposition’s negative campaign.
“If FPJ were alive today, he would have wanted a constructive opposition, one that would aim to unite the country and not one that would only destroy all the gains that have been achieved,” he said.
Sotto said that when he and Oreta declined to sign the manifesto, GO organizers made them feel unwanted and eventually left them out of the ticket.
“If people vote for the candidates of GO, they will be voting for destabilization and the destruction of our economic gains,” he said. “That is why it is important to ensure a 12-0 win for Team Unity, so we can have the majority in the Senate to prevent any attempts by the opposition to derail our progress again.”
Also yesterday, Team Unity candidate Edgardo Angara said he was banking on women to give his campaign a boost.
Angara, who has written a number of laws benefiting women, said the “Women for Angara” was established three days ago at the Manila Polo Club, with pledges of support from 100 women in the academic community, business and the arts.
Angara said he would also ask his wife, Gloria, to take his place during the Team Unity campaign in Bicol.
Sotto: JV admitted that GO bets made impeach pact
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