Legarda’s loyalty questioned

by Maila Ager (INQUIRER.net)

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20100228-255868/Legardas-loyalty-questioned

MANILA, Philippines--Senator Loren Legarda has been criticized by an official of the Liberal Party (LP) for her persistent claim of loyalty to the Filipino people when what she has shown was her “penchant for butterfly-ism.”

“Butterfly-ism” is the word being used by some people to describe a politician, who always jumps from one party to another.

LP director-general Chito Gascon said that if there was truth to Legarda’s claim that she feels sincerely for the people, then “she should be the epitome of loyalty to the people, instead of her personal political interests as shown by her butterfly attitude.”

“She has shown nothing but her penchant for political butterfly-ism,” Gascon said in a statement on Sunday.

He then noted how Legarda had joined and left political parties and alliances and even reversed her own stand on major issues to advance her political ambitions.
Legarda first ran as a senator under the banner of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats during the 1998 elections and supported the impeachment of then President Joseph Estrada.

But in 2004, the senator ran and lost for vice president as the running mate of Estrada’s close friend, the late Fernando Poe Jr.

Legarda is again running for vice president, this time, however with Nacionalista Party’s standard-bearer, Senator Manny Villar.

“How can she support a presidential candidate she has condemned before and worked to remove as Senate President because of his involvement in the C-5 road anomaly?” Gascon asked.

Legarda was among the senators who ousted Villar from the Senate presidency and later on pushed for the Senate investigation into his alleged involvement in the anomalous C-5 road extension project.

“How can she justify political butterfly-ism? Just because it is convenient for her so she can pursue her political dreams outside her own political party? Is this the true EDSA warrior, or a politician just using EDSA to ride on the popular tide of emotion spawned by people's remembrance of the grand people's action that threw out dictatorship and corruption?” Gascon further asked.