Team (Dis)Unity

[Ermitan yow]

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ASO makes Angara hot under the collar
By Joyce Pangco Pañares

Re-electionist Senator Edgardo Angara is becoming a prima donna of Team Unity, always sticking to his own schedule and blowing his top over petty issues, according to his colleagues.

Another candidate in Team Unity disclosed that Angara is overly sensitive on the issue of the ASO tag, which is a play on the first letters of the surnames of Angara and former Senators Vicente Sotto III and Tessie Aquino Oreta.

Angara blew his top in Bohol after a picture of the three came out in local newspapers, saying Team Unity organizers should have the foresight of not lumping them together in one boat.

“He really made a big issue out of it,” said the candidate who also observed that Angara always made sure he would never be seated next to Sotto or Oreta.

Oreta said she found the picture “cute” since the caption read that while the three have been branded lapdogs in Manila, they are well-loved in Bohol.

A candidate who has been Angara’s partner in recent Pulong Sulong or town hall meetings of the administration lineup observed that he is the one who is fickle-minded when it comes to schedule and not the organizers of Team Unity.

“First he said he agrees to the Leyte-Iloilo schedule. He in fact offered to hire a private plane so we wouldn’t have to go back to Manila from Tacloban just to fly to Iloilo. And the next thing we knew he has already changed his mind and has decided he would not attend the sortie anymore,” the candidate said.

The candidate made his sentiments known after Angara publicly criticized the decisions of Team Unity campaign manager Reli German as “logistical horrors.”

Angara said the scheduling had been “irrational” even as he expressed assurance that the minor glitch has already been ironed out.

On Thursday, Angara would again miss the Bicol sortie but the senator explained that he has already informed the organizers that he would be guest speaker in various commencement exercises in Cebu and in Iloilo.

“I cannot cancel my previous commitments. These have nothing to do with what happened in Leyte. That was just a minor glitch,” Angara said.

But team Unity spokesman Ace Durano lamented that Angara chose not to attend the Bicol leg since the idea of campaigning as a whole instead of three teams was their response to his complaints.

“Senator Angara’s input is well- taken. It is for this reason that this week’s Pulong Sulong in Bicol will be the first Pulong Sulong where all Team Unity candidates will be together. It is unfortunate he could not make it,” Durano said in a separate interview.

Angara would be represented by his wife, Gloria, during the Bicol sortie.

Wa na. Nagbinasulay na ang members sa "ITIM UNITY."

sPRINGY, LINGAW KAAYO BAY!

[dredd41v576]

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.

[SPRINGFIELD_XD_40]

Walay makapildi sa KAMPI !!