EDITORIAL - With Gibo in, three-cornered fight looms

With the declaration of Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro as the ruling Lakas-Kampi-CMB presidential candidate for the 2010 general elections, the cast is virtually made up for what is widely-anticipated as a three-cornered fight.

This is not to say there will only be three presidential candidates in 2010. As can be determined from the pronouncements of those with presidential ambitions, the number could go as high as seven, or even beyond.

But for practical purposes, many see only a three-cornered fight. And it will involve Teodoro, Senator Manuel Villar of the Nacionalista Party, and Senator Benigno Aquino III of the Liberal Party.

Teodoro because of the administration clout and organization, Villar because of his early momentum and capability to sustain it, not just with resources but great strategies, and Aquino because of his extreme luck to be in the right place at the right time.

Former president Joseph Estrada will have to stay a dark horse because he cannot move to within the circle of three due to uncertainties surrounding his political fate. The question about "reelection" is certain to reach the Supreme Court and deprive him of precious time.

With the nomination of Teodoro, the campaign is expected to go into high gear because frankly it was who the administration would put up that the other parties and aspirants had been waiting and holding their best shots for.

The situation had not been unlike the situation in a basketball court, whereby coaches keep a keen eye on the composition of the enemy on the floor and make quick substitutions and rotations to adjust and compensate.

But with the fight expected to involve Teodoro, Villar and Aquino, expect the rest of the field to make quick adjustments of their own -- either to make almost futile efforts to stay in the race or make quick adjustments to save their day and run for other positions.

Aside from Estrada, there could be another dark horse in either Loren Legarda or Chiz Escudero. But the entry of either of the two will undermine not only the other dark horse, Estrada, but also one of the three main protagonists, who in all likelihood will be Aquino.