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By Efren L. Danao, Senior
Reporter
It is highly unlikely for Sen.
Francis “Chiz” Escudero to pull the rug from under Sen. Loren
Legarda’s feet in the presidential elections in 2010.
Escudero on Monday rejected any
possibility that he and Legarda will be rivals for the same post.
Supposedly, there have been comments that with his competitive
ranking in surveys, he would be titillated enough to run against
Legarda for President.
“For whatever reason, Loren and
I will always be together. In running, we won’t be apart,”
Escudero said during an exclusive interview with The Manila Times.
If he were to choose who would be
his presidential candidate, he added, it would be Legarda.
Legarda expressed elation when
she learned of Escudero picking her as his bet for Chief Executive
in the 2010 polls.
“That’s great! We belong to a
mutual-admiration society. But he never told me that before!” she
said in mock protest.
Legarda echoed Escudero’s
declaration that they would not be squaring off against each other.
“We will always be together if
and when we decide to run,” she said.
Legarda and Escudero both belong
to the Nationalist People’s Coalition but in the Senate, Legarda
belongs to the minority and Escudero, to the majority.
“These are internal alliances
in the Senate and they will not affect our national perspective,”
Legarda said.
Like Escudero, she does not
believe that the 2010 elections would be a one-on-one contest
between an administration and an opposition candidate.
“The more presidential
candidates there are, the better for the public who would have more
choices,” Legarda explained.
The expected presidential
candidates besides Legarda are Vice President Noli de Castro, Senate
President Manuel Villar Jr. of the Nacionalista Party, Sen. Manuel
Roxas 2nd of the Liberal Party and Sen. Panfilo Lacson.
De Castro, although party-less,
has the inside track on the official candidate of the Lakas-Kampi
administration party. Independent Sen. Richard Gordon and Makati
City Mayor Jejomar Binay of PDP-Laban and the United Opposition have
also shown keen interest in running. Chairman Bayani Fernando of the
Metro Manila Development Authority recently announced that he would
bid for the presidency in 2010.
Among those named as probable
candidates for Vice-President, besides Escudero, are Senators
Francis Pangilinan, Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, Benigno Aquino 3rd,
Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. and Jamby Madrigal.
The public is excited whenever a
Loren-Chiz tandem for 2010 is discussed, Legarda said.
She added that her pairing with
Escudero for the 2010 polls often crops up and this possibility has
animated the audience whenever this is suggested.
Legarda, though, said talks of a
Loren-Chiz ticket are informal ones and nothing is firm at this
point.
“Let us not talk about 2010
yet. A Loren-Chiz tandem sounds great but it is still premature,”
she told The Times.
“Chiz and I enjoy high ratings,
but our decision to run will be based on our performance. In the
meantime, let us concentrate on the problems besetting the
nation,” Legarda said.
Legarda, No. 1 in the 2007
senatorial race, and Escudero, No. 2, have consistently rated high
in surveys on presidential preferences.
Also-rans in that race should
have realized that the people do not want them in the government,
the reason why they were rejected by the electorate in the first
place.
“They all lost in the 2007
elections. Don’t they get the message that the people don’t like
them?” asked Leah Navarro, a convenor of the civil-society group
Black and White Movement and a guest also on Monday in ABS-CBN’s
morning television program Umagang Kay Ganda.
Navarro was reacting to President
Gloria Arroyo’s appointment last week of Vicente Sotto 3rd as the
head of the Dangerous Drugs Board. Sotto lost in the 2007 senatorial
derby under the administration ticket Team Unity. Sotto, who had
returned to hosting noontime game show Eat Bulaga, replaced Anselmo
Avenido, whose term ended July 4.
Malacańang said Sotto was
considered for the post because of his major role in the passage of
the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act when he was still a Quezon
City local government executive.
Before Sotto’s appointment,
President Arroyo had named her former political spokesman, Michael
Defensor, as the chief of a task force formed for the opening of
Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Defensor also
lost in the 2007 senatorial race also under the administration
slate.
Navarro said her group approves
of the appointments of losing senatorial bets to government posts.
But, she added, these appointments are seen as political payback for
those who had helped Mrs. Arroyo.
“There are always suspicions.
People would ask, ‘Why them? Is it [appointment] a form of payment
for a political debt?’ “ she added.
Defensor, interviewed during the
same ABS-CBN television show, said he is working pro bono.
“Just for clarification, I’m
not receiving a salary [as the head of] this task force. I am not of
Cabinet rank,” he pointed out.
Defensor said he had accepted the
job because the opening of Terminal 3 is a priority of the
administration.
“This [being the leader of the
task force] is the only little way I know I can help [the
government]. This project [opening of Terminal 3] should push
through for the OFWs [overseas Filipino workers] and businessmen,”
he added.
Defensor, who held at least three
Cabinet posts before losing in the 2007 senatorial elections, said
he had met with the President before he was given the airport job.
He had also been appointed as a
director of the government-controlled oil giant Petron Corp.
“I don’t hold any other
positions in the government,” Defensor said.
There are rumors of a looming
revamp in the Arroyo Cabinet supposedly to accommodate other losing
senatorial bets of the administration, Ralph Recto and Teresa
Aquino-Oreta, and former Surigao congressman Prospero Pichay.
Other also-rans from Team Unity
were former Zambales Governor Vicente Magsaysay, actor Cesar
Montano, Sultan Jamaluil Kiram 3rd and former Ilocos Sur Governor
Luis “Chavit” Singson.
Three administration candidates
made it to the Senate: Edgardo Angara, Joker Arroyo and Jose Miguel
Zubiri.
--With Francis Earl A. Cueto
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