JDV to FVR: Don’t Allow Lakas-Kampi Merger

Following is Rep. Jose de Venecia’s letter to Fidel Ramos on the Lakas-Kampo merger.

25 February 2008

HIS EXCELLENCY

PRESIDENT FIDEL V. RAMOS

Chairman Emeritus, Lakas-CMD

Dear President Ramos,

Relative to the proposed merger of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (LAKAS-CMD) and the Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (KAMPI), may I bring to your attention the following agreements already entered into by LAKAS-CMD and KAMPI but were never implemented despite commitments made by Madame Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, first as Vice-President and later as President.

First, three was already a declaration of merger between LAKAS-CMD and KAMPI in 1998, signed by the late Raul Manglapus, then president of Lakas-NUCD-UMDP, and me, then secretary general, and by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, then chairman of KAMPI, and Bernardino Abes, then president of KAMPI in Malacanang, and witnessed by Your Excellency. This declaration, which is herewith attached, clearly provided for the two parties’ merger but it was never implemented after Madame Macapagal-Arroyo was elected Vice-President in 1998 and subsequently took over as President in 2001;

Second, during the political crisis of July, 2005 aggravated by the simultaneous withdrawal of support for President Arroyo by various sectors led by some of the members of the Cabinet, popularly known as the Hyatt-Ten incident, I personally brought up the issue of the merger of the two parties in our meeting at the Cabinet Room in Malacanang with about 20 Lakas-CMD leaders. President Arroyo then briefly called for a recess, went to an anteroom, consulted someone, and came back to declare that she would henceforth implement the merger agreement;

Third, more than a year ago, in a meeting with the First Gentleman, Mike Arroyo, considered a Godfather of KAMPI, and his brother, Congressman Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo, they informed me that KAMPI was now prepared to implement the merger. Thereafter, congressional members of KAMPI, in a signed statement, manifested “our intention to have our Party merged with the Lakas-CMD” and if a merger was not feasible, for any reason whatsoever, “we hereby declare, effective immediately, our re-affiliation with Lakas-CMD (Lakas Christian Muslim Democrats) in order to help ensure the expanded role of the nation’s ruling party.”

Sadly, however, all these agreements were never implemented by President Arroyo and by the First Gentleman, the moving force behind KAMPI. Instead, she encouraged or allowed the continued existence of KAMPI and supported the raiding of our Party leaders or the fielding of candidates opposing our Party’s official candidates in the 2007 elections in KAMPI’s inordinate desire to become the dominant administration party.

I note with sadness that President Arroyo and the First Family were never sincere in pushing for the merger of LAKAS-CMD and KAMPI.

She appeared to agree to the merger only when she needed our Party’s support, as during the series of crises that confronted her presidency.

Now that she is facing another crisis, there is again this talk of merger.

With all due respect, Mr. President, the merger of LAKAS-CMD and KAMPI should not be allowed anymore. To do so will cause the demise of the Party that you and I, together with the late Raul Manglapus, founded and nurtured.

Instead, I propose that we get rid of the evil forces that are now bedeviling LAKAS-CMD or, at the very least ask them to leave and join another party where they can be comfortable with their greed and pathetic practices.

Time and again, we have given the President chances to reform and cleanse her government, to remove the scalawags in her Cabinet and in other agencies and government-owned and -controlled corporations, to stop the scandals, corruption and greed, and to investigate, prosecute and punish those found to be involved.

By her actions and decisions, she has ignored our calls and merely paid lip service to them. She did nothing to stop the plunder of our nation. This is against the very essence of Christian and Muslim democracy for which our Party was established and which we continue to nurture and foster.

Mr. President, you and I and Raul Manglapus and the other leaders successfully fashioned LAKAS-CMD to be the only party in the world, perhaps, to house Christian and Muslims under one roof in a common political house; for we correctly anticipated that the geopolitical and politico-religious conflicts in the 21st Century, as in centuries before, would be between Christians and Muslims.

Political leaders in Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa have repeatedly declared their admiration for LAKAS-CMD and the model it provides the world, for which reason you have been elected Chairman Emeritus, and I was elected Chairman of CDI Asia Pacific, recently succeeding former Premier Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand, and vice-president for the third time of CDI International, now led by former Mexico President Vicente Fox and Interparliamentary Union (IPU) President Pier Ferdinando Casini.

For the above reasons, I urge Your Excellency to help prevent the decline and demise of our Party, now in the grip of Malacanang and heavily infiltrated by the forces of KAMPI and by the President’s family and cronies.

I regret I cannot join Your Excellency in the next few days, as I’m scheduled to attend and speak at the board meeting of the Global Centre for ICT in Parliaments on February 28, 2008 at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, and to confer in a separate meeting with the new UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Very truly yours,

JOSE DE VENECIA JR