House minority leader Danilo Suarez. 黑料社 FILE PHOTO
LUCENA CITY, Philippines鈥擳he 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鈥檚 (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 鈥淢itos鈥� 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鈥檚 rally, 聽said his fearless forecast was that UNA candidates would receive more votes than Team PNoy bets in Quezon province.
鈥淗ere maybe some LP candidates will make it to the Magic 12. My fearless forecast is that there will be more (votes) for UNA,鈥� he said.
One of the issues that would lead to less votes for administration candidates in Quezon was government鈥檚 importation of palm oil, something which hurt the copra farmers of the province, said Suarez.
This was a 鈥渃ompelling reason鈥� for some 1.1 million Quezon province voters to 鈥渧ote against administration candidates, they are hurting our farmers,鈥� he said.
Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, chairman emeritus of Lakas-CMD, will not have a hand in the party鈥檚 announcement of senatorial candidates next week.
But Suarez clarified that Lakas-CMD has not formed an alliance with UNA, saying that they were 鈥済rateful that they included Mitos Magsaysay in their slate.鈥�