GMA allies prepare frontal attack vs Noy

Manila, Philippines - Former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s allies in the House of Representatives have decided to “go on the offensive” against the Aquino administration, Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez said yesterday.

“We agreed not to be docile, supportive and constructive anymore. We will go on the offensive and criticize this administration frontally. That was the marching order,” he said at the news forum Serye Café in Quezon City.

The decision, he said, was arrived at in a meeting last Monday between a small group of members of the House minority that included now Pampanga Rep. Arroyo, House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman, Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez and Lakas president Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr.

Suarez said the marching order to launch a “frontal attack” against the Aquino administration was given, not by Arroyo, but by Revilla. “No, not from GMA, but from our party president,” Suarez said in response to a question on who issued the marching order.

But Revilla denied yesterday he had given the party orders to lock horns with the administration.

“Now is not the time for bickering,” the senator said in a statement. “The party remains an ally of the current administration in all its efforts to alleviate every Filipino’s living condition, eradicate corruption in the government and improve the country’s economic situation while continuing to play its role under the check and balance system.”

Arroyo, who represents Pampanga’s second district, is regarded as the titular head of Lakas, the ruling party during her nine-year presidency.

Suarez said the retaliatory move by the opposition was prompted by the filing last week of a tax evasion case against Arroyo’s eldest son, party-list Rep. Mikey Arroyo.

“We felt that this administration has ordered a witch-hunt against us, that they will charge us one after the other until they finish us all off. We have to fight back,” Suarez said.

He said the offensive would start next week with the filing of resolutions calling for House inquiries into cases of “inefficiency and corruption in this administration.”

Suarez declined to discuss specific details of the cases but said these would be “damaging” to President Aquino.

When asked if Revilla and Arroyo’s other allies in the Senate will initiate similar investigations, Suarez said it was not discussed at the meeting.