Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Francis Escudero and Loren Legarda's never-ending pingpong game

And the merry-go-round of Philippine politics goes on. With Francis Escudero leaving the Nationalis People's Coalition yesterday, the party now has no standard-bearer for the 2010 presidential elections. It leaves open the possibility of NPC teaming-up with Lakas-KAMPI-CMD or Manny Villar's Nacionalista Party. Now, a Gilbert Teodoro-Loren Legarda or Villar-Legarda tandem can really happen.

The fluidity of the current political scene is highlighted by NPC's declaration yesterday (through Rep. Mark Cojuangco) that they can still field Legarda as its presidential bet. Legarda would look like a proxy candidate (panakip-butas) though, since NPC bigwigs had long indicated its preference for Escudero despite Loren's experience.

What about Chiz? Can he run for president without Danding Cojuangco's billions? As a UP public administration professor said yesterday, no one has won the presidency as "ako bilang ako." Running for VP under under the party of President Arroyo would make him look like a hypocrite (do we have to say why and how?) while running with Villar would betray Escudero's supposed stand vs. corruption.

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