Villar open to Chiz or Loren as vice president

MANILA, Philippines - Nacionalista Party standard-bearer Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. reiterated yesterday that he remains open to a possible tandem with either Sen. Loren Legarda or Sen. Francis Escudero.

Legarda had announced earlier that she would run for vice president under the Nationalist People’s Coalition while Escudero resigned from NPC last Wednesday.

“The NP is open to anybody who wants to join or ally with us,” Villar said.

Escudero and Legarda are both efficient senators and they will be assets to anybody who will have either of them as running mate, Villar told reporters after NP formed an alliance with the Partido Magdalo of Cavite in Kawit, Cavite the other night.

Villar refused to choose when asked whom he thinks has an edge between Legarda and Escudero.

“Hindi tayo namimili ng ganyan. Pareho nating ginagalang yan. Pareho nating hinahangaan yan. Iba- iba ang kanilang katangian at pareho naman nating hinahangaan yan (We don’t choose like that. We admire and respect both of them and each have their respective strengths),” he said.

He said Escudero can be a good running mate but he has not decided whether he would pursue his plans to run for higher office or simply back out of the race.

“Sen. Chiz Escudero is also a good senator whom we admire and the Senate is proud of. We respect his decision to think it over thoroughly,” Villar said in Filipino.

Villar also had good words for Legarda, a former presidential aspirant who declared that she would now run for vice president.

“Senator Loren is also okay, whoever she chooses to run with can also stand proud. In Chiz’s case it’s difficult to second-guess him since he has not declared he is running for vice president,” Villar said.

Villar said that if ever the NP will strike an alliance with any party, NP would lead the group.

“All remains possible. The NP-NPC, you just remove (letter) C, and you get NP. While when you add C to NP, it becomes NPC. I am saying that everything is possible. It is hard to deal with the NP as a party. We go along with anybody as long as we have same ideals, which is to help the poor and get them out of poverty,” Villar said.

Villar said NP and NPC seem to have similar platforms, hinting of a possible coalition.

Asked if he has spoken to Legarda, Villar said he has not talked to her personally but hinted that sheer logic would dictate the shape of things to come.

Meanwhile, NP spokesman Gilbert Remulla claimed that party members are holding separate talks with Legarda and Escudero for a possible alliance in the 2010 elections.

“We cannot deny there have been talks at various levels with both of them (separately of course). The best we can say is that we will be making an announcement within the next two weeks,” Remulla said.

Escudero had earlier rejected the idea of running with Villar citing his corruption case regarding the C-5 Road extension project that allegedly benefited Villar’s real estate company, while Sen. Edgardo Angara had reportedly been the one talking with NP for a Villar- Legarda team up.

However, it was Angara and Legarda who led the ouster of Villar as Senate president last year following the controversy that Villar sought a double budget for the C-5 project.

But Legarda denied talking with Villar personally although she had met with another camp, the Lakas-Kampi-CMD through Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno who is reportedly working on  the tandem of Legarda and Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., standard-bearer of the administration party. With Aurea Calica