Arroyo’s party to announce Senate bets it will support

House minority leader Danilo Suarez. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

LUCENA CITY, Philippines—The Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (Lakas-CMD) will announce on April 10 the senatorial candidates it will support.

At the same time, Lakas-CMD vice chairman and House minority leader Danilo Suarez said the party was likely to adopt more guest candidates from the United Nationalist Alliance’s (UNA) and include a couple of Team PNoy bets.

Lakas-CMD does not have its own senatorial slate for this midterm elections as its former member Zambales Representative Milagros “Mitos” Magsaysay left the party to pursue her bid for a seat in the Senate with UNA.

Suarez, in an interview with reporters at the Quezon Convention Center before UNA’s rally,  said his fearless forecast was that UNA candidates would receive more votes than Team PNoy bets in Quezon province.

“Here maybe some LP candidates will make it to the Magic 12. My fearless forecast is that there will be more (votes) for UNA,” he said.

One of the issues that would lead to less votes for administration candidates in Quezon was government’s importation of palm oil, something which hurt the copra farmers of the province, said Suarez.

This was a “compelling reason” for some 1.1 million Quezon province voters to “vote against administration candidates, they are hurting our farmers,” he said.

Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, chairman emeritus of Lakas-CMD, will not have a hand in the party’s announcement of senatorial candidates next week.

But Suarez clarified that Lakas-CMD has not formed an alliance with UNA, saying that they were “grateful that they included Mitos Magsaysay in their slate.”