Lakas widens search for 2010 standard bearer

MANILA, Philippines - The ruling Lakas party has widened its search for a presidential candidate in next year’s elections to include three popular senators who are identified with the opposition.

Speaker Prospero Nograles, Lakas president, said yesterday that a “top-level” negotiating team has been formed to talk to Senators Francis Escudero, Loren Legarda and Manuel Villar about the possibility of their joining the ruling coalition’s selection process for its standard-bearer.

“Senators Escudero, Legarda and Villar belong to political parties that are members of the administration coalition,” he told the Serye Café’ news forum in Quezon City.

He said Presidential Political Adviser Gabriel Claudio, Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri, who is Lakas secretary-general, and party spokesman Prospero Pichay, a former congressman, are members of the negotiating team.

Escudero and Legarda are members of the Nationalist People’s Coalition that was founded by business tycoon Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., while Villar is Nacionalista Party president.

The three senators who belong to the opposition in the Senate are doing well in surveys.

Claudio earlier said the search for a presidential candidate was focused on three potential candidates – Vice President Noli de Castro, Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro and an unnamed third politician.

Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino (Kampi), speaking through Isabela Rep. Rodolfo Albano III, has said it would support Teodoro, Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno and Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. in the presidential selection process.

Nograles said the Claudio-Zubiri-Pichay team has up to April 13, when Congress resumes session, to come up with a list of those willing to join such process.

He said President Arroyo, the recognized leader of the coalition, is leaving it up to coalition leaders to choose the administration candidate.

“On my part, I am not supporting anybody, though I had good working relations with Senator Escudero in the last Congress when I was majority leader and he was minority leader,” he said.

Asked why the coalition has not chosen De Castro despite the fact that he is leading all surveys, Nograles responded: “We don’t know if he is interested. He has not told us. Certainly, he has not told me.”

As for Chairman Bayani Fernando of the Metro Manila Development Authority, who has volunteered to seek the presidency under the Lakas banner, Nograles said, “BF is okay. It is easy to say I want to run, but the party wants to win.”

Mar bares talks with reform groups

Sen. Mar Roxas, presidential candidate of the Liberal Party (LP) in the 2010 elections, revealed that his party has started dialogues for the unification of various reform groups led by the Kaya Natin! Movement to prepare for next year’s polls.

Roxas said the union between the LP, Kaya Natin! and other pro-reform groups would bolster their chances for victory in the 2010 presidential polls.

“I am confident we can finally achieve our dream of having a reform-oriented leader for the country because we have common and sincere desire for change in the country,” said Roxas, who is scheduled to visit Cagayan and Isabela today.         – With Charlie Lagasca