Noli boys predict landslide poll win

Supporters of Sen. Noli De Castro are predicting a landslide victory for the broadcaster-turned-politician in the vice presidential race in the May 2004 polls.

Isko Catibayan, spokesman for the Kabayan for Vice President Movement, said De Castro could easily get the votes as he is very popular even as a presidential candidate.

"Kabayan (De Castro) has been leading all the surveys for vice president and even the surveys for president. We agree with President Arroyo in her statement yesterday that accepting the challenge to run for the vice presidency is a ‘big sacrifice.’

"Kabayan will surely win by a landslide whoever is pitted against him," Catibayan said.

Their group, he said, has consulted many sectors including the youth, women, farmers, fishermen, workers, the urban poor, senior citizens, small businessmen and professionals in Metro Manila, Visayas and Mindanao and there was a consensus that De Castro has a good chance of winning the presidency.

"Anyway, Kabayan is only 54 years old. He will be president someday," Catibayan said.

He disclosed that as the country’s possible next vice president, De Castro will champion their group’s suggested programs, including the removal of graft and corruption in government, a debt payment moratorium for five years, full efficiency in public service, a department for overseas contract workers, comprehensive programs for education and agriculture and the establishment of a national steel industry.

Catibayan urged Sen. Loren Legarda to run again for the Senate instead of contesting the vice presidency against De Castro.

"We believe that Senator Loren should just consider serving as senator for another six years. She will top the Senate elections this May and she can be Senate president someday. She is very young at 43. We need young and dynamic leaders in the Senate like her. We can even help her in her campaign. Like Kabayan, she should sacrifice and just run for the Senate," Catibayan stressed.

Meanwhile, presidential aspirant Raul Roco has a good chance of winning in the 2004 polls because of stronger election machinery, his running mate, former Tarlac congressman Herminio Aquino said.

"In 1998, he (Roco) came up a strong third mainly on an army of hard core volunteers and students," Aquino, youngest brother of the father of slain Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr., said.

Roco and Aquino have filed their certificates of candidacy last Dec. 30 under the political party Aksyon Demokratiko. — With Sheila Crisostomo