Arroyo predicts landslide success for Lakas despite survey shocks

Manila: President Gloria Arroyo has predicted a landslide victory for the ruling party and its allies in the House of Representatives, and at local and village level, including the Senate, despite surveys saying the opposition will control the Upper House of Congress, a senior official said.

"The administration is looking forward to gaining a new majority in the Senate courtesy of a decisive Team Unity (TU) victory," said political adviser, Gabriel Claudio.

The ruling Lakas and allies which belong to the TU, fielded 98 per cent of candidates in all contested posts. The opposition, known as Genuine Opposition (GO), has fielded only a total of 45 per cent of the vacated posts," said Claudio.

"GO has no presence in 55 per cent of the local level," explained Claudio, adding this is the secret weapon of the pro-administration's candidates for the senate, despite opposite predictions from pre-election surveys.

Opposition senatorial candidate Chiz Escudero predicted GO will get two-thirds of the 275-seat House of Representatives.

Accusation

This would mean an end to impeachment complaints against Arroyo, who was accused of cheating in the 2004 presidential polls.

The Social Weather Stations also said in a survey, made from May 2-4, GO will win six seats, TU, four, and there will be two independents.

The latter used to be a part of Arroyo's rainbow coalition. Both GO and TU will have an equal number of seats in the Senate.

This could slightly stall Arroyo's call for the passage of Bills for economic reform. She succeeded last year to push for the passage of the value added tax and the tax reform law, which increased prices of commodities and government revenues.

Unfazed, Claudio said that Arroyo's senatorial team is expected to get more votes following endorsements from power blocks such as the non-Catholic Church of Christ, the Church of Christ, lay charismatic leader Mike Velarde.