MANILA, Philippines – An official of the country’s ruling coalition revealed that they have widened the search for their standard bearer in the 2010 presidential elections to include three opposition senators, who have been doing well in recent surveys.
Speaker Prospero Nograles of the House of Representatives, the president of the Lakas Christian Muslim Democrats, said a top-level negotiating team has been formed to talk to the “outsiders” about the possibility of their joining the Lakas selection process for its standard bearer.
Nograles said they include former Senate president Manuel Villar as well as Senators Francis Escudero and Loren Legarda.
Villar heads the Nacionalista Party, one of the country’s oldest political parties while Escudero and Legarda belong to the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC, the party founded by Marcos crony and business tycoon Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco.
The NPC is a member of the House ruling coalition dominated by Lakas but Escudero and Legarda belong to a minority bloc at the NPC that has been sharply critical of the Arroyo administration.
Another Lakas official, Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri who is the party’s secretary general, confirmed that Vice President Noli de Castro and Secretary Gilbert Teodoro of the Department of Defense are also leading contenders in the Lakas selection process.
De Castro, a former broadcast journalist, describes himself as an independent while Teodoro, the nephew of Cojuangco and former president Corazon Aquino, resigned from the NPC after declaring that he is interested in running for president in 2010.
Meanwhile, Nograles said the Lakas negotiating team is composed of Zubiri, former congressman Prospero Pichay, the party spokesman; and Secretary Gabriel Claudio, the presidential political adviser.
Nograles said that the team has up to April 13 when the House and the Senate resume session after a month-long recess, to come up with the list of those willing to join the Lakas selection process.
He said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the recognized leader of the party, is leaving it up to the leaders to choose the administration standard bearer in the 2010 polls.
For his part, Zubiri disclosed that another possible “dark horse” is maverick administration Senator Richard Gordon, also the chairman of the Philippine National Red Cross.
However, Zubiri said another Lakas member, Bayani Fernando, the chairman of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, is definitely out of the list because of his poor showing in the surveys.
Earlier, Fernando threatened to leave Lakas if he is not chosen as the party’s standard bearer for next year’s elections.
But Zubiri retorted: “We must be practical. Many party mates will desert Lakas if the standard is not winnable. The standard bearer must convince the local party leaders and members to support him or her come election time.”
Zubiri said Lakas is in a rush to name its presidential candidate because of the early deadline for the filing of the certificates of candidacy.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced it was moving the date for the filing to November 30, 2009 from February 2010.
As a result, Lakas decided to hold its convention in June to choose its presidential candidate in 2010, Zubiri pointed out.
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