Who’s afraid of a Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III-Manuel “Mar” Roxas tandem?
Senator Manuel Villar is still shopping for a running-mate, apparently seeing the Aquino-Roxas duo as a strong contender in the May 2010 presidential elections.
Villar is now choosing among Senators Francis Escudero and Jose "Jinggoy" Estrada and Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay as possible vice presidential candidate to match against Aquino and Roxas.
Gilbert Remulla, spokesperson of Villar’s Nacionalista Party, said on Sunday Escudero, Estrada, and Binay were “logical choices” because they were all affiliated with the political opposition.
“Anything is possible,” he told the Philippine Daily Inquirer. “We feel that the situation is still fluid. We still expect realignments to happen as the deadline for the filing of certificates of candidacy comes closer.”
But Remulla said there had been no formal discussions yet with Escudero, Estrada, or Binay on the possibility of any of them running with Villar.
“We are leaving it to Villar to decide on who he thinks will best complement him,” the spokesperson said.
Aquino and Roxas are set to announce their tandem at the historic Club Filipino in San Juan on Monday.
The name of Vice President Noli De Castro was earlier floated as another possible running-mate of Villar. But De Castro, who had declined to run for president under the administration party, was mum about the idea.
A senior member of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD party said De Castro was likely not to run for any elective post in 2010 and would rather return to his old broadcasting job with television giant ABS-CBN.
Malacañang described the tandem of Aquino and Roxas on Sunday as “predictable but a good combination.”
“They have a good complementation of regional support base (Luzon and Visayas) and they have a natural synergy of political beliefs and ideology because of their friendship and shared party loyalties,” said Gabriel Claudio, presidential political adviser.
“We congratulate and wish them both well.”
The administration party had picked Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro as its “consensus” standard-bearer, with Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno as his likely running-mate.
Remulla ridiculed a Teodoro-Puno ticket.
“We don’t even consider the administration tandem as formidable with (President) Arroyo’s popularity way, way down,” he said.
