Defections

By Ben R. Rosario, Mars W. Mosqueda Jr., and Ellson A. Quismorio The camp of Liberal party (LP) presidential bet Mar Roxas suffered a major blow in the House of Representatives after 23 party-list organizations bolted the chamber’s majority bloc to throw their support to the Partido Galing at Puso (PGP) tandem of Senators Grace Poe and Francis Escudero. The exodus from the Malacañang-backed majority is expected to trigger massive defections of the remaining party-list congressmen and district lawmakers to the Poe-Escudero tandem, Butil Party-list Rep. Agapito Guanlao said. “At least 23 party-list groups, most of them members of the Partylist Coalition, are now Poe-Chiz supporters.  Seven more from the minority bloc have already expressed their intention to back Poe for president and Escudero for vice president,” disclosed Guanlao, in an interview. Among the seven party-list groups belonging to the House opposition are Gabriela Partylist, Bayan Muna, ACT Teachers, Anakpawis, [...]