Lakas-Kampi members urged to 'expose' Teodoro to voting public

MANILA, Philippines - Members of Lakas-Kampi-CMD were urged yesterday to “work double time” to inform voters about the qualifications of their standard-bearer Gilbert Teodoro Jr. to become the next president of the republic.

In an interview, Nueva Ecija Rep. Rodolfo Antonino, Lakas-Kampi-CMD vice president for policy, said surveys should pose a challenge and opportunity to members of the pro-administration party to work for Teodoro’s victory.

“This is where party machinery can be seen and this will be highlighted if Gibo (Teodoro) wins the presidency,” he said.

“We must work double-time to have him exposed (to voters).”

Antonino downplayed fears that the merger of Lakas-CMD and Kampi at the grassroots would weaken support for their national candidates.

“Our first consideration in choosing local candidates of the merged dominant party is winnability,” he said.

“Of course, there is the principle of the equity of the incumbent, but it so happens that about 99 percent of pro-administration incumbents seeking re-elections are winnable.”

Antonino said the Lakas-Kampi-CMD leadership is determined to enforce the merger at the grassroots even if those not chosen as official candidates would move to other parties.

“Of course, we expect some to jump to other parties, but I don’t think this will affect the support for national candidates since those to be chosen candidates are winnable and therefore capable of supporting national candidates,” he said.

Antonino said allowing pro-administration parties to field candidates against each other at the local level would be a problem.

“In the 2007 elections, what happened was that administration senatorial candidates refrained from campaigning in some areas because of confusion on who among the several local candidates of the administration should be seen with them,” he said.    – Ding Cervantes, Roberto Dejon