LP unfazed by NPC stand to back Poe

Senate President Franklin Drilon. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / JOAN BONDOC

As the biggest political party in the country, the administration Liberal Party (LP) is not bothered that the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) of businessman Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco is supporting presidential candidate Sen. Grace Poe and her running mate, Sen. Francis Escudero, according to an LP official.

Senate President Franklin Drilon, LP vice chair, noted on Tuesday that the NPC support for the Poe-Escudero team was not total because some members were backing LP standard-bearer Mar Roxas.

“We respect the decision of the NPC,” Drilon said in a radio interview.

He said the NPC had supported for almost six years President Aquino’s daang matuwid (straight path) policy but had to part ways with the LP over candidates it wanted to support in the May elections.

Still, Drilon maintained that the LP remained the country’s biggest political party with a big machinery.

“That’s why we are not bothered by the NPC decision,” he said, adding the LP will continue to present the Aquino administration’s record of good governance to the voters.

He expressed the hope that the Supreme Court would hand down its ruling in two weeks’ time on the petitions seeking to disqualify Poe as a presidential candidate over questions of her citizenship and residency.

“I have long been asking the Supreme Court to expedite its decision on this case,” he said.