By Angelo S. Samonte, Reporter

President Gloria Arroyo announced she would actively campaign for administration standard-bearer Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro, despite speculations that she is disassociating herself from him for fear of harming his presidential bid.

“As a party member and as the chairman emeritus of the party, we expect [President Arroyo] to be campaigning actively for the standard-bearer together with the national candidates of the party, the Lakas-Kampi CMD [Christian Muslim Democrats],” said Cabinet Secretary Silvestre Bello 3rd on Friday.

“While we expect the President to help us in the campaign, how she would do it, we leave that to the President to decide,” he added in response to questions whether Mrs. Arroyo will join the sorties of Teodoro and his running mate, actor Edu Manzano.

When asked why the President did not raise the hands of Teodoro during the party’s national convention on Thursday, Bello said that Mrs. Arroyo has her own style. It was being perceived that the President was distancing herself from Teodoro because it may affect the campaign given her very low popularity rating.
Bello said that he did not know why the people were reading too much into the actions of the President.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said that raising the hands of a candidate was a practice in the past, and that was why the President avoided doing it for Teodoro.

Bello said, “Yes it’s an old style, because you know some leaders will endorse somebody and after a while they will raise the hands of another candidate.”

‘Party of the future’

Mrs. Arroyo rallied her troops behind the administration’s candidates in the May 2010 elections, calling the ruling coalition the “party of the future” and ignoring continuing defections of members from the administration’s Lakas-Kampi CMD.

This week, the administration party was rocked by defections to the Liberal Party by former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ralph Recto, his wife Batangas Gov. Vilma Santos-Recto and Mayor

Feliciano “Sonny” Belmonte of Quezon City, its vice president for external affairs.

Even Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri said earlier that the party has lost some 40 percent of its members.
But also on Thursday, the President gave a fiery farewell speech as the chairman emeritus of Lakas-Kampi CMD before 3,500 cheering supporters. She asked their support for the success of the party in 2010.

“It’s now a time to consolidate our ranks and fortify our party for the electoral battle ahead. Let us transform the Lakas-Kampi CMD party from the party of the present to become the party of the future,” Mrs. Arroyo said.

“But first things let us get them elected,” she added, with “as big a mandate as you our leaders in the countryside and urban centers can win from our people.”

Fight your own battles

Also on Friday, Lakas-Kampi CMD released a statement saying that Teodoro should fight his own battles, given in reaction to critics noting that the President did not raise the hands of her candidate.

“We have to emphasize the fact that it is Gibo who is running in 2010, not President Arroyo,” said party Secretary General Francis Manglapus.

“So it is just natural and a matter of protocol for the Chief Executive to fade away by handing over the Lakas-Kampi CMD chairmanship to him during the convention at the Philippine International Convention Center,” he added.

“Yesterday’s event was clearly a passing of the torch, and those who want to make an issue of the President not raising the hand of Gibo should be thankful that this early she is passing on the mantle of authority to her successor,” Manglapus said.

He said that Teodoro, a Harvard alumnus and 1989 Bar topnotcher, fought hard for the nomination by joining the party and deservedly won it in a decisive vote taken on September 16 by the National Executive Committee.

“Gibo won the nomination on his own. In the convention, which was a continuation of the process, he clearly showed to party mates why he deserved it,” Manglapus added.