Aquino has last say on LP standard bearer – Belmonte

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / LEO M. SABANGAN II

MANILA, Philippines – The Liberal Party might have started the vetting process to find its standard bearer for the 2016 national elections but Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said that party members have only a 0.1 percent say on the presidential bet.

Belmonte, vice chair of the LP, said that President Aquino, who declared the start of a consensus-building process in the LP two weeks ago, would have a 99.9 percent sway on the party’s selection process.

In a press conference, Belmonte said that whoever the President would pick, whether from the LP or from its allies outside the party, “I am confident that we will win.”

Belmonte parried questions on whether LP would pick Sen. Grace Poe, who ran under the LP-coalition slate in the 2013 elections, and defended the presumed LP presidential bet, Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II, claiming that many things have been going for the LP president.

“He (Roxas) is skillful, he is hardworking, and he has a fine record of public service. They criticize him for being rich as if that disqualifies him from running,” said Belmonte.

When asked if Roxas had a strong chance of winning it all, Belmonte said a lot of things could happen in the next one and half years before the May 2016 election.

“At a certain point, you have to assess the situation, I just don’t know what that point is,” said Belmonte.

Belmonte also downplayed reports that LP members were fawning over Poe during the LP’s Christmas party last week. Belmonte said LP’s predominantly male members found Poe pretty but would not make any further comment. “She sat beside the President at the dinner table and if you look at it from that point of view, then she might be special,” said Belmonte. “But she was seated there probably because of her rank as senator.”