Chairman Bayani Fernando of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) on Friday said that he left the administration coalition Lakas-Kampi Christian Muslim Democrats (CMD) “sometime ago.”

“Tumiwalag na ako [I have resigned from it]. I do not consider myself a member of the Lakas-Kampi CMD party anymore,” Fernando, a long time ally of the administration, told reporters at the sidelines of the launching of the agency’s mobile digital ticketing system and parking enforcement team.

Early this year, the MMDA chairman, who had long declared that he would run for president in next year’s elections, warned to leave the ruling party if he would not be anointed as the party’s standard-bearer in the May 2010 balloting.

He failed to get the party’s nomination for the presidency in September after the coalition’s leaders overwhelmingly selected then Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro as their presidential candidate in next year’s polls, which will pick President Gloria Arroyo’s successor.

While the administration party threw its support behind Teodoro’s bid, the people behind the original Lakas party that catapulted Fidel Ramos in 1992 to the presidency also on Thursday expressed their support for the candidacy of Philippine Labor and Peasant Party presidential bet and former Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane.

Former Executive Secretary Ruben Torres, now serving as the campaign manager of Ebdane, said that some 50 members of the Lakas party, from incumbent and former Cabinet secretaries, congressmen, governors, mayors and town officials, met with their presidential bet at the Diamond Hotel in Manila to discuss the platform of government that the former Public Works secretary plans to push.

Fernando, who has been a member of the administration party since 1992 when it was still known as Lakas-National Union of Christian Democrats, said that he decided to leave because he has lost his faith in the party.

“Hindi na ako naniniwala sa partido. Mahirap naman ‘yun kung hindi ka na naniniwala, ‘di ba? At siguro, ayaw na rin nila sa akin [I don’t believe in the party anymore. It’s hard to stay with it if you don’t believe in it anymore, right? And maybe, they don’t like me anymore],” he added.

Fernando said that he could no longer remember when exactly he bolted the party, only that he did so “sometime ago.” He, however, added that he has not filed a letter to formalize his resignation from the ruling coalition.

According to the MMDA chairman, “Parang hindi na karapat-dapat na ako ay magpatuloy bilang isang miyembro [It is not proper anymore for me to remain as a member of the party]. Nalulusaw na ang partido [The party is disintegrating].”

“Talagang ganyan ang pagsasama, minsan nagkakahiwalay [That’s the way togetherness ends, sometimes you part ways],” he said.

Fernando clarified that he has no knowledge of his inclusion in the senatorial slate of the Lakas-Kampi CMD in the 2010 elections.

“I have not been given prior notice by the party nor have I expressed interest in joining their list of senatorial candidates. I am running for president and it is not my aspiration to become a senator,” he said.

“Hindi maganda na pinapalabas nilang tatakbo akong senador sa kanilang partido, kasi panloloko iyon. Nililito nila ang publiko. Ako ay tatakbo bilang pangulo ng Pilipinas at hindi sa kung ano pa mang posisyon [It’s not alright that they make it appear that I would be running for senator under their party. They’re confusing the people. I will run for president, not for any other position],” Fernando added.

He said that he would resign soon as chairman of MMDA to pursue his candidacy for president in 2010 as an independent candidate.

The MMDA chief did not gave an exact date when he would file his resignation. Sources, though, said that Fernando would likely quit his post next week.

He said that he would file his certificate of candidacy before the Commission on Elections office at the end of the month.

According to him, he has no idea who would replace him as the head of the MMDA.

Cris G. Odronia with report from James Konstantin Galvez