Malaya
September 17, 2009

MEMBERS of Partido Magdalo and their supporters visited depressed areas in Taguig City yesterday to feed indigents and distribute 22 wheelchairs to the disabled.

The Magdalos are planning to enter politics by fielding the more recognizable members like Scout Ranger Gen. Danilo Lim and Marine Col. Ariel Querubin in the senatorial race in 2010.

Its Taguig chapter president, Navy Ltsg. James Layug, said the activity was their way of bringing their cause to the grassroots.

Some 2,800 children from North Daang Hari, Tanyag, Maharlika, GHQ, Signal Village, Palar, Wildcat and PNR Site were fed by the Magdalo’s mobile soup kitchen. The feeding program actually began last June, said Samahang Magdalo administrative officer Noel Ariar, and continues to be held weekly.

“We just want to make an impact on the city’s depressed communities through this mobile soup kitchen. This is just one of the ways for our group to make meaningful approach to “ignored communities, a way to engage with their plight and at the same time, enrich volunteers with the experience of serving the less fortunate,” Ariar said.

“This feat may be old school yet it shows the connection of our people’s needs for attention and the volunteers’ willingness to help. Either way, we empower lives, we make meaningful presence,” said Layug who is reportedly running for Congress in Taguig.

Other Magdalos who are planning to run in next year’s elections are Marine Captain Gary Alejano and former Air Force Lt. Francisco Ashley Acedillo.

Layug was one of the core leaders of the Magdalo group, composed of junior officers and enlisted personnel that staged the 2003 Oakwood mutiny and the 2007 Manila Peninsula Hotel siege, both in Makati. He, along with the group’s other leaders Navy Ltsg.-turned-senator Antonio Trillanes IV and Alejano are currently detained at the PNP custodial center in Camp Crame while awaiting resolution of their coup d’etat and rebellion cases. – Ashzel Hachero

Malaya
Sept 04, 2009

IF you can’t beat them, join them.

This was the prevailing sentiment among a group of soldiers who had called for President Arroyo’s resignation during a mutiny in 2003 as they filed for the accreditation yesterday of Magdalo Para sa Pagbabago (Magdalo) as a political party based in the National Capital Region.

Air Force 1Lt. Francisco Ashley Acedillo, Magdalo secretary general, said they want to bring their advocacy directly to the government instead of simply making noises outside it. “We understand that if we are to effect or pursue meaningful change in governance, we will have to be part of governance mechanism but we cannot do so if we are not elected,” he said.

Acedillo, who is eyeing a congressional seat in the first district of Cebu, said they have five other members planning to run in the May 2010 polls in the hope of duplicating the feat of former Navy Ltsg. Antonio Trillanes who won a Senate seat in the 2007 polls despite being detained for the Oakwood mutiny.

Magdalo’s bets for 2010 are Lt. Col. Ariel Querubin and Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim for the Senate; Navy Lt. James Layug (Taguig) and Army Capt. Dante Langkit (Kalinga) for the Lower House, and Capt. Gary Alejano for Silay City mayor.

Once their party is accredited, Acedillo said they might run under the party list system in which case, their members would have to run as independents and not under the Magdalo party.

Acedillo said Magdalo will hold a national convention next month to decide on the party list option and possible nominees, and which of their members will run under Magdalo. He said they are also talking with the political opposition for possible alliances. – Gerard Naval

Malaya
August 28, 2009

THE Liberal Party yesterday said it is proposing a political alliance with Samahan Magdalo which staged the Oakwood mutiny and may draft detained Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim as one of its senatorial candidates in next year’s elections.

The Magdalo group was “very receptive” to the proposal considering the two groups “share a common reform agenda to bring about dynamic and effective governance,” said former Senate president Frank Drilon, now LP national chairman.

“We also noted that we share a common aversion against graft and corruption in government,” he said.

Drilon said he and Cavite Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya, LP secretary general, met with Lim and Samahan Magdalo titular head Sen. Antonio Trillanes in Camp Crame yesterday morning and discussed the possible partnership between LP and Magdalo for the May elections.

Drilon, also a senatorial candidate of the LP next year, said the Magdalo group has registered itself as a political party.

He said Lim’s possible inclusion in the senatorial line-up will be a big boost to the party because of the general’s reputation as a “staunch reform advocate” in society.

Drilon said Trillanes and Lim informed him they would decide on the LP proposal during the Samahan Magdalo convention in October.

Lim gave his consent that his name be included in the list of possible LP senatorial candidates, he said.

Trillanes is detained for the 2003 Oakwood mutiny. Lim, former head of the Army’s Scout Rangers, is detained for an alleged attempt to overthrow the Arroyo government in February 2006.

The LP earlier entered into a political alliance with Akbayan and agreed on the inclusion of Akbayan party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros in the 12-man LP senatorial lineup.

Sen. Francis Pangilinan, an independent member of Liberal Party (LP) and a declared vice presidential aspirant, yesterday endorsed Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III as LP standard bearer in next year’s elections.

But Pangilinan added he may even support a presidential bid by Isabela Governor Grace Padaca in the interest of true reforms.

Pangilinan also issued a veiled swipe at the LP leadership saying the party must observe a democratic process of selecting the 2010 standard bearer.

“Democratic processes should be upheld, and the widest participation of all party members should be observed in the nomination of the party’s standard bearers. The party processes involving the membership, and not a few personalities, should decide on major issues such as the party’s standard bearers,” he said.