JEDDAH/MANILA, 9 July 2003 — Opposition Senator Panfilo Lacson, who promised in an interview in Jeddah on Sunday to rule with an iron fist if elected president next year, said yesterday he would pursue the presidency only if a united opposition chose him as its standard-bearer.
If not, he said, he would go back to the Senate, finish his six-year term in 2007, and do away with politics forever.
“I’m not obsessed with running for the presidency,” Lacson said at a media forum in Manila.
In an interview after the forum, Lacson told reporters that he was not willing to slide down and be anyone’s running mate.
He said he wanted to make a go for the presidency next year “because my time is in 2004, and 2010 is no longer my time.”
Lacson urged the opposition to choose between him and businessman Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco or any aspirant, and whoever is chosen as standard-bearer by the united opposition, he would extend his support.
Ousted President Joseph Estrada, who is detained on charges of plunder, had said he still wanted his best friend, actor Fernando Poe Jr., to run for the presidency but if Poe declines, Lacson would be his second choice. Cojuangco is Estrada’s third choice but he is being pushed by allies of President Gloria Arroyo to run under an administration coalition banner.
Lacson said if he is chosen by the opposition and Cojuangco opt to run as an administration candidate, he is ready to meet him head-on. He lamented that Cojuangco’s sudden show of interest in seeking the presidency was not fair since Cojuangco supposedly told him in February or March that he was not interested in the highest post in the land.
Cojuangco “told me to go ahead with my plans as he was satisfied with what he was doing at San Miguel,” Lacson told the media forum.
Cojuangco, who is founder of the Nationalist People’s Coalition or NPC, is chairman and chief executive officer of beverage and food conglomerate San Miguel Corp.
If Cojuangco changes his mind, that is his prerogative, Lacson said, adding that his offer to give way to Cojuangco “doesn’t stand anymore.”
“You know, if you’re wading in the water and you get to the middle, and the one you spoke with said you should go back to shore, that would be difficult to do,” Lacson told reporters. “It’s unfair, not difficult but unfair.”
In an interview with Arab News and ABS-CBN Television in Jeddah on Sunday, he has plenty to offer the Filipino people if they give him a chance to lead the nation.
Lacson said the Philippines need a better government, adding that he considered President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo a “failure.”
“We’ve tasted almost three years of her (administration),” he said. “I think she is a failure. Where are we today?” he said, citing the budget deficit had ballooned from over 100 billion pesos three years ago to 213 billion pesos at present, while the peso had fallen to 53 to the dollar from 44 to the dollar.
He also said the number of kidnapping-for-ransom cases and bank robberies had risen.
Lacson said if elected president, he would rule with an iron fist...”but in accordance with the rule of law.”
“We have enough laws to enforce. The problem is the double-standard in enforcing them. If it’s a relative or acquaintance of the president, they seem untouched. If it’s the common Juan dela Cruz, it seems the application of the law is too forceful. There must only be one standard in enforcing the law,” he said in the interview with prior to his meeting with community leaders in Jeddah at the Marriott Hotel.
Lacson also said that implementing the law must start with the “high and mighty” in the government. “Our country will be doomed if we don’t mend the system. The problem in our country is the government itself, and we should address the ills in the government before we even look at the 80 million Filipinos,” Lacson further said.
The senator was oozing with confidence when asked of his chances in the event of a one-on-one presidential contest with President Arroyo. “Your guess is as good a mine...the opposition will win hands down.”
While he said he believed Arroyo when she said she will not run for president next year, her “political body language says otherwise.” “Where can you see a president who says she won’t run but is campaign vigorously?” Lacson pointed out.
“It could have been good if her campaign is against illegal drugs, against criminality, against poverty, against graft and corruption, instead her campaign is against political opposition. So how can you believe a president who is saying one and acting in support of another effort?” Lacson asked.
When asked about Erap’s preferring Fernando Poe, Jr. as the opposition presidential candidate over him, Lacson simply said that “He (Erap) has been saying that for a long time. By his own admission, he said he has been friends with FPJ for 40 years.”
Lacson, however, said that choosing a unified opposition presidential candidate is not the call of Estrada because the selection goes through a process, and whoever is selected must be respected by all parties.
As for his ability to win the election, Lacson said that Estrada’s perception that he will only win by two million votes (compared to five million by Fernando Poe, Jr.), is just his own. “Let’s respect that. Whether it is correct or not that is his perception of things.”
Asked whether Joseph Estrada would be an asset or a liability to his political plans, Lacson said the ousted president would be both. “Politics is addition,” he said. “Any endorsement from a political figure would help in my candidacy.”
