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ILOILO CITY — Administration officials who preferred the tandem of Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro and Sen. Loren Legarda have not given up on moves to forge the partnership.
Antique Gov. Salvacion Zaldivar-Perez, Vice President for Visayas of the 80-member League of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP), said they were pushing for a coalition of the administration's Lakas-Kampi and Legarda's Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC) to make the tandem possible.
“We still feel that the two leaders would make a very good team,” Perez, provincial chairperson of the NPC in Antique, told the Inquirer in a telephone interview on Monday.
The LPP had earlier pushed for Legarda as the running mate of Teodoro after Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno backed out from his plans to run for vice president.
Legarda last week announced that she would run for vice president but did not name her running mate. She said that she remained with the opposition and would run only under the NPC.
Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero who was being touted as the NPC's standard bearer has not announced his bid.
Perez said a coalition between Lakas-Kampi and the NPC would allow Legarda to run under the NPC but in partnership with Teodoro.
“(Legarda) could not decide on her own because she has to abide by the party decision so it would be better if the two parties coalesced and push for the tandem instead of the candidates talking,” Perez said.
She said Legarda's advocacy for the environment would be fully realized under a Teodoro presidency.
