Meanwhile, Porio was executive director of the Fund for Assistance to Private Education (FAPE). Habulan is a professor at De La Salle University (DLSU), Manila; while Cortuna is a self-described ?health and wellness guru.?
Abono and ARC are among 22 party-list groups listed by the poll monitoring group Kontra Daya as ?Malaca?ang and AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) fronts.?
Abono?s nominees are: Roberto Raymund Estrella, Francisco Emmanuel Ortega, Ramon Morden, Rosendo So, and Fatima Almazan.
Accredited by the Comelec on Sept. 21, 2006, Abono claims to represent the peasants of Northern Luzon ? from which it draws the bulk of its membership ? as well as the rest of the country. The group was supported in this year?s elections by Pangasinan governor-elect Amado Espino, Jr., a member of Kampi, and also reportedly by reelected and incumbent House Speaker, Jose de Venecia.
Its second nominee, Francisco Emmanuel Ortega, is a son of La Union governor-elect Manuel Ortega, who is with the Nationalist People?s Coalition (NPC) which is led by businessman Eduardo ?Danding? Cojuangco, Jr. The Ortega family has lorded over La Union for decades.
Meanwhile, ARC?s nominees are: Narciso ?Archie? Santiago III, Oscar Francisco, Kashmir Leyretana, Basilio Propongo, and Isidro Suedad. While claiming to also represent peasants, ARC has as its first nominee a son of Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who is closely allied with Arroyo.
AGAP registered with the Comelec on Jan. 16, 2007. Its nominees are: Nicanor Briones, Cesar Cobrador, Rico Geron, Albert Roque Lim, and Victorino Michael Lescano. Its first nominee is a known opponent of what he describes as the ?anarchic importation of pork,? which he says adversely affects 80 percent of the country?s hog raisers.
The nominees of Batas are: Daniel Razon, Melanio ?Batas? Mauricio, Jr., Jose ?Jay? Sonza, Ariel Pacis, and Olivia ?Bong? Coo.
Razon, Mauricio, and Sonza are all popular broadcasters ? with Mauricio being a known lawyer as well. Coo earned fame for her victories as a member of the Philippine Bowling Team.
Mauricio, Sonza, and Coo all ran ? unsuccessfully so ? for senator in 2004 under the Alyansa ng Pag-asa (Alliance of Hope), a coalition headed by then presidential candidate Raul Roco who died a few months after that year?s elections.
Buhay
The rankings of Buhay and Bayan Muna have surprised many ? considering that while Buhay consistently ranked in the top ten based on all credible opinion surveys during the campaign period, it never quite came close to Bayan Muna which was shown to have the potential of getting anywhere from 12 percent to as much as 27 percent of votes.
Buhay has two sets of nominees to the 14th Congress. The first set is composed of Hans Christian Se?eres, Hermenegildo Dumlao, Antonio Bautista, Victor Pablo Trinidad, and Eduardo Solangon, Jr. Rene Velarde, Ma. Carissa Coscolluela, William Erwin Tieng, Melchor Monsod, and Teresita Villarama make up the second set of nominees.
Se?eres and Velarde represented Buhay in the 13th Congress. Se?eres is a son of lawyer Roy Se?eres, who is a former ambassador and was also chairman of the National Labor Rleations Commission (NLRC), while Velarde is a son of Mike Velarde ? leader of the charismatic group El Shaddai.
The elder Se?eres is a known opponent of Arroyo and called for her ouster in 2005 following the surfacing of the ?Hello Garci? tapes ? in which a woman with a voice similar to the President?s is heard instructing a poll official ? widely believed to be former Comelec commissioner Virgilio Garcillano ? to rig the 2004 polls. He was arrested together with former Defense Secretary Fortunato Abat and former Budget Secretary Salvador Enriquez in December 2005 after an attempt to declare a ?revolutionary government? at the Club Filipino. The elder Se?eres, together with Abat and Enriquez, all served in the government of former President Fidel Ramos.
The elder Velarde, meanwhile, serves unofficially as the ?spiritual adviser? of Arroyo, although he has voiced some criticism of some of her government?s measures like the push for charter change.
In the 13th Congress, the younger Se?eres and Velarde were known for bills seeking to protect the rights of the unborn.
The younger Se?eres voted against the first impeachment complaint against Arroyo, which was filed in 2005, but voted in favor of the second impeachment complaint a year later. The younger Velarde, meanwhile, voted in favor of both impeachment complaints.
Villarama, who is in Buhay?s second set of nominees for the 14th Congress, is the wife of Bulacan Rep. Wilfrido Villarama ? a known Arroyo ally. Bulatlat
