Lakas-Kampi-CMD congressmen on Saturday accused the Liberal Party of trying to exploit the losing election cases of LP members in an attempt to gain public sympathy and boost the plummeting poll survey ratings of its presidential bet, Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.

Administration solons assailed LP leaders for their apparent refusal to respect the law by claiming that party members who lost election protest cases were actually victims of political persecution.

They said Aquino’s political party was actually trying to sidetrack the real issue, which is the irregularity committed in the 2007 elections, particularly in the province of Pampanga where LP member and Gov. Ed Panlilio is being asked to step down.

Aside from Panlilio, the Commission on Elections has issued orders directing Governors Jonjon Mendoza of Bulacan and Grace Padaca of Isabela, to step down in favor of the real winners in the 2007 elections – former Governors Roberto Pagdanganan and Benjamin Dy, respectively.

Rep. Milagros Magsaysay said the LP found “propaganda material” in the decision of the Comelec rulings against the three governors.

“I think the LP is using and squeezing the Comelec decision for whatever political value it can give for their own gain considering that  Mendoza and Panlilio were never original members when their protest cases were filed in 2007,” Magsaysay said.

“They are running out of propaganda to save their dropping percentage in the surveys,” she added.

The Comelec has ruled that Panlilio did not win the 2007 gubernatorial race in the province. Instead, it was former Mayor Lilia Pineda, a member of Lakas-Kampi-CMD, who emerged victorious.

LP assailed the Comelec decisions as manifestations of the alleged “extreme prejudice” of Comelec against the party.

LP lamented how its allies were subjected to swift but questionable decisions regarding their candidacies, bolstering suspicions that these were meant to weaken the chances of the party’s success in the May elections.

House Deputy Speaker for Women Amelita Villarosa and Marikina City Rep. Marcelino Teodoro chided the LP statements as “unfair and baseless.”

“The fact that it took this long proved there was due process. Imagine a person winning in an election but sitting as an elected official for less than three months? What a waste of time and unfair to the real elected official,” Villarosa said.

“They are not the winners and yet they enjoyed the privileges of being the winner for two years and nine months,” she said.

Teodoro noted that the decision of the poll body on Panlilio was a result of an election protest made three years ago.

“It is a matter of electoral recount which can still be appealed to by Panlilio. What would be the prejudice is to claim that LP candidates are intentionally being weakened by the Comelec’s decision,” he said.

The neophyte lawmaker said the Comelec, as an independent body, should not be misconstrued as a biased institution.

“LP’s woes are all legal in nature which they must face legally as well and not by blaming others,” Teodoro said.

Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez said Panlilio has no one to blame for his ouster but himself.

“There is this procedure conducted. He should have focused on his defenses instead of crying political persecution,” Suarez said.