CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Groups against the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Free Port (APECO) said yesterday Pres. Aquino is behind the Liberal Party (LP) senatorial candidacy of Aurora Rep. Sonny Angara as payback for the Angara clan’s support for him in the 2010 presidential elections.
This, even as the Anakpawis party list and Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) asked last week the Supreme Court to decide on a 10-month old petition they filed urging the high tribunal to declare as unconstitutional the laws that created the APECO.
“The Angara dynasty in Aurora led by Sen. Edgardo Angara, his son Aurora Rep. Sonny Angara and the senator’s sister Aurora Gov. Bella Angara-Castillo sealed the continuing support for APECO by supporting Aquino’s presidential bid in 2010.
This is why APECO’s status was elevated into a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project,” said Pamalakaya chair Fernando Hicap said.
Hicap said the Angaras are expected to “ask anew a higher budget for APECO next year and will use their association with the incumbent administration to clinch a higher budget.”
In 2012, the Angaras asked for P3 billion budget for APECO, but Congress allocated only P 325 million.
Hicap, also the vice chair of Anakpawis party list, said “the inclusion of the younger Angara as member and possible nominee of the Liberal Party in 2013’s senatorial elections, his designation as spokesperson of the prosecution panel during the impeachment of former Chief Justice Renato Corona and Sen. Angara’s yes vote to the impeachment complaint against the Corona sealed the alliance between the Aquino camp and the Angara dynasty.”
“APECO is Aquino’s quid pro quo with the Angaras. The project is a political marriage by convenience,” he added.
Last week, Pamalakaya and Anakpawis party list asked the Supreme Court to decide on a 10-month old petition they filed urging the high tribunal to declare APECO null.
The 88-page petition also urged the high court to declare Republic Act 9490 or the ASEZA (Aurora Special Economic Zone Authority) Act of 2007 and its amendatory law—Republic Act 10083 or the Aurora Pacific Economic Zone and Free Port Act of 2010 – as unconstitutional.
The petition also asked the high tribunal to issue either a temporary restraining order (TRO) or writ of preliminary injunction against the APECO project.
“We are puzzled with extreme behavior being displayed here by the high court. There is a paramount need for the high tribunal to settle the score on APECO. But the case is dragging,” said Hicap.
The petitioners said both RA 9490 and RA 10083 violated the constitutional provisions pertaining to agrarian reform and social justice, as the APECO project covered lands already covered and awarded through government land reform programs.
They also alleged the APECO violated the constitutional provision on “the rights of subsistence fishermen, especially of local communities, in the preferential use of local marine and fishing resources, both inland and offshore.”
