MANILA – The coalition of the Liberal Party and the Nacionalista Party for the 2013 elections is a done deal.

NP president Manuel Villar yesterday said they are now threshing out the expected problems in the local level, as a result of LP-NP coalition.

“Basically, we agree on rules. But we are not inclined to believe that there should be a big problem,” Villar said, adding that he expects both parties to exert their best efforts on any problem that may arise.

“If there are places that LP and NP may fight each other, we have no choice but to declare the area as a free zone,” he said.

The NP senatorial candidates in the coalition will include his wife, Cynthia Villar, re-electionist Antonio Trillanes, Alan Cayetano and Robert Ace Barbers, Villar said.

In the June 2 special election in the 5th district of Negros Occidental, Board Member Emilio Yulo III, a candidate of NP, lost to Binalbagan Mayor Alejandro Mirasol of the Liberal party, in the congressional race.

Villar, who is managing the Villar Foundation after his term as senator ends next year, said they have agreed that he will remain as NP president.

Villar lost against Aquino in the 2010 presidential elections.

Robert Ace Barbers, NP spokesperson, said that their party is “open to any coalition partners, as long as we coalesce on the bases of party programs, party policies, and ideologies we are advocating."

Mrs. Villar, who is running for senator, said there are no demands on them, in coalescing with the LP.

While there are skepticisms over the LP-NP coalition, Mrs. Villar said that whether there is a coalition or not, they will field only four senatorial candidates.

Mrs. Villar said the NP will serve as a “constructive opposition”, although they are having a coalition with the LP of President Benigno Aquino III. * GPB

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