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“The fact that the business community is willing to sponsor the debate is a vote of confidence already. And the decision of the opposition not to attend just goes to show that they have no alternative to offer,” Surigao del Sur Rep. Prospero Pichay said.

“Maybe they are sourgraping because they are not getting financial support from business groups, who are afraid that their platform of hate and impeaching the President would only destabilize the country and destroy all our economic gains. They should not be called the Genuine Opposition but Genuine Destabilizers.”

GO spokesman Adel Tamano has complained that the offer of the business groups will give Team Unity bets a “hometown advantage,” admitting that the members of the business community are “supporters of President Arroyo.”

Team Unity spokesman Ace Durano slammed the opposition for rejecting the proposal by business groups to hold the public debate at the Manila Hotel.

“Why is the Genuine Opposition afraid of an organized, civil and amicable discourse of the issues that matter the most to the electorate in the May 14 elections? This only proves that their sole campaign strategy is to resort to muckraking and finger-pointing instead of presenting viable proposals to sustain the economic turnaround,” Durano said.

Durano challenged GO’s candidates to admit that they were “afraid to engage in intelligent discourse” instead of coming up with all sorts of conditions such as holding the debate in Plaza Miranda.

In Lemery, Batangas, opposition senatorial candidate Loren Legarda insisted that a debate must not only discuss the economy but also human rights and the environment.

“They should include in the topics to be debated social issues and other humanitarian concerns,” Legarda told reporters, adding that only a debate covering a wide range of issues would allow the public to appreciate the exchange of ideas.

Based on the format proposed by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Employers Confederation of the Philippines, the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, and the Philippine Exporters Confederation, the panelists would be selected by the organizers from the media, academe and business sectors.

“For us, this is a perfect format because we can be assured of the quality of the questions. With this format, we can also be assured that all of the issues will be discussed intelligently and substantively,” Durano said.

Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis Singson, another candidate of Team Unity, predicted that the opposition would collapse in the final stretch of the campaign period because of infighting.

“The collapse of the GO is inevitable because of the intense infighting among themselves. They are trying to cancel each other out. In the end, they will be fighting among themselves,” said Singson, who is now in Mindanao, in a separate interview.

Singson said that as the campaign period entered its third week, cracks in the opposition were already starting to manifest themselves as shown by the cancelation of their political rallies.

Pichay also said that the lack of a political machinery was costing the opposition the loyalty of its candidates, citing the case of independent candidate Francis Pangilinan, who was evicted because he refused to join GO’s rallies.

“Look at what happened to Kiko [Pangilinan]. I think that was a wise decision. Imagine, the opposition has no machinery to boast of, so what can they give Kiko? Nothing. But if he attended their rallies, the other candidates would have used the presence of his wife, Sharon Cuneta, to gain more supporters because she is a megastar,” Pichay said.

Pichay said the only machinery that the opposition had was composed of two mayors in Metro Manila—San Juan Mayor Jose Victor Ejercito and Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay—and Iloilo Gov. Niel Tupas. With Dennis Carcamo http://www.manilastandardtoday.com