Press Release
April 10, 2010

LP SEEKS IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF NP-NPC MERGER RESOLUTION
SAYS TAGLE MEDIA ANNOUNCEMENT PREEMPTED COMELEC EN BANC

The Liberal Party today urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to release as soon as possible the reported resolution approving the 'bogus' coalition of the Nacionalista Party and the Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC) for the May 10 national and local elections.

LP lawyers have filed a motion asking the Comelec en banc to immediately release its formal decision on the NP-NPC merger, stressing "unnecessary further delay of the release of the allegedly already-signed resolution--may frustrate the right of the Liberal Party to make the appropriate remedy."

The Liberal Party had earlier filed two separate Motions for Early Resolution of the issue - one on March 23 and another on March 30, emphasizing the urgency for the Comelec to immediately resolve the case due to the fast-approaching elections. It stressed that the issue involves prejudicial questions. There was no immediate response from the Comelec.

But on April 8, news reports quoted Commissioner Lucenito Tagle as saying that the Comelec, by a 4 to 3 vote, has approved a resolution approving the NP's merger with the NPC. He said, though, that the decision has yet to be promulgated and that the resolution would be released next week, at the earliest.

Liberal President Senator Mar Roxas said the Comelec should have first released the formal resolution before any media announcements were made. "That's the proper thing to do - make a formal decision first before making a public announcement. In this case, the announcement was made first while the decision remains pending," he lamented.

He added: "The Comelec is clearly dilly-dallying in releasing its decision. This has to be released now so the LP still has the time to take other legal remedial steps."

The LP had opposed the 'fake' NP-NPC alliance, arguing the merger was illegal because it was formed and its registration was filed way past the deadline, which the Comelec had set at August 17, 2009.

Roxas questioned why the Comelec approved the merger despite its late registration and withstanding public statements made by Pangasinan Rep. Mark Cojuangco that the NP-NPC alliance was unilaterally done by NPC chair Faustino Dy Jr. and without his and his father's consent. Cojuangco is the son of businessman and NPC founder Ambassador Danding Cojuangco. Other NPC members, among them Lualhati Antonino, had said that she and other members of the NPC central committee had not been informed of the merger.

Liberal standard-bearer Sen. Noynoy Aquino warned that the NP-NPC merger would help the NP in taking the dominant minority party status away from LP. The dominant minority party gets a coveted copy of the election returns and access to an electronic server on May 10.

If this happens, Aquino said, administration poll-fraud operators would have the free hand to carry out their scheme, noting anew Malacañang's 'unholy alliance' with the NP of presidential bet Manuel Villar, the 'secret' candidate of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Aquino and Roxas have earlier alerted the public of an administration-hatched 'grand conspiracy' to tamper the results of the May 10 polls. They noted alarming developments in the poll body's preparations for the country's first automated election system (AES) and in the political front that point to the disturbing scenario of a failure of elections, thereby extending the 9-year term of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

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