Cayetano won’t slide down to vice president

MANILA, Philippines - Senate Majority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano could face with a tough challenge in his bid for the presidency in 2016, not from the ranks of the administration or the opposition, but from within his own political party.

After hearing that former first lady and now Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos has made a pitch for her son, Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr., to make a bid for the presidency in 2016, Cayetano yesterday said he was unfazed and would not consider sliding down to the vice presidency for anyone or for any reason.

During her 85th birthday celebration in Ilocos Norte earlier this week, Mrs. Marcos said that her son is qualified to run for president in 2016.

Senator Marcos has said that he would definitely be a candidate in 2016, but has not made any commitment on what position he would run for, since he is qualified to run for re-election as a senator.

Cayetano said that for him, it was president or bust.

“I am also getting impatient. What we have accomplished in our city (Taguig), we want to replicate in the rest of the Philippines,” Cayetano said in a press briefing.

Both Cayetano and Marcos are members of the Nacionalista Party (NP), which is headed by former Senate president Manuel Villar Jr.

Villar’s wife, Sen. Cynthia Villar, said that the party has not yet discussed the issue of the 2016 elections but they intend to start talks by the end of this year.

Apart from Marcos and Cayetano, another NP member, Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, has also expressed his intention to run for vice president.

According to Cayetano, there is no need for NP members to formally discuss this right now.

He said that he and Marcos have agreed to just bare their plans to the public at this point, show them what they can offer and then let them make their own judgment later on.