Housing Secretary Michael Defensor said Senate President Franklin Drilon, LP national chairman, and Trade and Industry Secretary Manuel Roxas II are the party’s nominees for Mrs. Arroyo’s running mate in next year’s polls.
The LP also nominated Roxas as one of the senatorial candidates aside from Tarlac Rep. Benigno Aquino III, former Manila mayor Alfredo Lim, and former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Perfecto Yasay Jr.
Defensor said officials of the LP, a member of the PPC, will reiterate their support for Mrs. Arroyo’s presidential bid even though they are set to meet today with presidential hopeful Raul Roco to listen to his platform of government for the party’s consideration.
However, Malacañang has already abandoned its previous efforts to bring back Roco’s Aksyon Demokratiko party to the fold of the PPC, he added.
Defensor said that the PPC’s shortlist of running mates for the President includes Senators Robert Barbers (Lakas), Noli de Castro (Independent), Aquilino Pimentel Jr. (PDP-Laban), as well as Tourism Secretary Richard Gordon (Nacionalista Party) and Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Bayani Fernando.
He refused to say if the PPC has already abandoned its efforts to convince Roco to be Mrs. Arroyo’s running mate, a move that can boost the administration coalition’s chances of winning against action star Fernando Poe Jr., who is the united opposition’s anointed standard-bearer.
"We’re in the process of validation now of our candidates, but of course there is nothing absolute about it," Defensor said. "But definitely no one from Malacañang is working towards" convincing Roco to join Mrs. Arroyo’s camp "at present."
He said there were efforts in the past by some Cabinet officials to convince Roco and his party to rejoin the PPC but did not name names.
Defensor, who is LP vice president for the National Capital Region, said the President has more than sufficiently explained her stand on national issues to the party’s leaders and members at last Saturday’s dinner meeting with them at Drilon’s Greenhills residence.
"The report that came out last Saturday was the LP intimation that they would like to see a joining of forces by the Roco camp and the President’s camp," he said.
"Personally, as I’ve stated, I think individually, overwhelmingly the President is supported by the LP and the President is still our honorary chairperson," Defensor added.
He noted that cracks within the LP became apparent after Drilon announced their party’s decision to conduct their own selection process as to which candidate to support in the 2004 presidential elections.
"Our situation (in the LP) is not so much that we are looking for another candidate or asking other candidates. The standing agreement is the President is the chairperson," Defensor explained.
He pointed out that the LP is open to its members "who would like to talk to other people" since the party agreed to go through a selection process.
"But we have to do it as fast as we can. We have agreed to make a decision within the week and we have agreed to have our consultations concluded within the week among the members of the LP," Defensor said.
Meanwhile, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye, emerging from a Cabinet meeting at Malacañang yesterday, said a Cabinet official has dropped broad hints of his desire to resign from his post ahead of his colleagues who also have plans to run in next year’s polls.
"There were hints during the Cabinet meeting, as of now, by only one of them," he told reporters.
Bunye, however, refused to identify the Cabinet official concerned except to say he was told by the official, "Ikaw na ang bahala sa akin pag tumakbo ako (Just take care of me when I run)."