Legarda says she’ll bare 2010 plans next week

By Angie Rosales

10/16/2009

It would be Sen. Loren Legarda’s turn to bare her plans for next year’s elections that she said would be made sometime next week.

Whether she will seek the presidency or be somebody else’s running mate remained unclear until yesterday but she gave broad hints at the likelihood she will run in tandem with a candidate from another party.

“All I can say is that I will make a declaration in the days to come. In the next 10 days, bar-ring any severe weather dis-turbance or changes in climate,” she told reporters during the weekly Kapihan sa Senado news forum.

Legarda, a member of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), as colleague and presidentiable Sen. Francis Escudero is, said she also intended to formally make her announcement alone.

Escudero was supposed to announce his presidential bid last Monday at Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan but

opted, at a last minute, to postpone it to a later date, to attend to typhoon victims in Pangasinan.

When asked if she will be announcing her plans side by side with Escudero, Legarda answered in the negative saying it will only be she who will make an announcement.

She begged off from further disclosing details so as not to preempt her plans, although from indications, Legarda is obviously eyeing a candidate other than her party mate.

“Does it really matter to five million Filipinos affected by typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng if I will run alone or will have a tandem, under which party or what alliance or merger?” Legarda asked, in reply to queries whether she will be carrying the banner of the NPC.

“What is important to the people is whether you have proved yourself to them and if you can make a difference in the lives. Let’s just all wait for that day to come, my announcement on what position and on what platform I will be advocating,” she said.

Legarda initially admitted that she is being “courted” by at least five presidentiables, including Escudero and administration candidate, Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro. The three others ARE former President Joseph Estrada, Senators Manuel Villar Jr. and Richard Gordon.

Legarda said “three others” remaining presidentiables continue to woo her.

The Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP), the political party of President Joseph Ejercito Estrada, meanwhile, said it received with jubilation Estrada’s most recent announcement that he is indeed running in the 2010 presidential race.

Estrada’s announcement caps off months of preparations the PMP undertook to prepare itself for Estrada’s possible comeback bid.

The PMP said in a statement it firmly believes that Estrada is the most qualified person to move this country forward. He possesses no frills and no nonsense leadership. President Estrada, along with the PMP, sincerely want to champion the cause of the masses.

The party’s director for political affairs, Pablo Casimina, has received feedback from PMP regional coordinators confirming Estrada’s announcement.

“All the regional, city and municipal coordinators, and volunteers of the PMP are in high spirits with this latest announcement from President Estrada,” it said.

Inspired by the recent developments, the coordinators, members and volunteers from the different regions are expected to attend President Estrada’s formal announcement on October 21, 2009, in Plaza Amado V. Hernandez, in front of the Sto. Niño Church in Tondo, Manila. President Estrada was born in Mary Johnston Hospital, Tondo – merely a few meters away from Plaza Hernandez.

Detained Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim also accepted his inclusion in the senatorial lineup of the opposition Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino as he expressed gratitude to PMP founding leader and former President Joseph Estrada for the trust and confidence and vowed to pursue reforms alongside his former commander-in-chief.

“I thank former President Joseph Estrada for his faith in my capacity and confidence in my integrity,” said Lim, who is presently detained at the Camp Crame Custodian Center for the February 2006 alleged mutiny and the November 2007 siege of the posh Manila Peninsula Hotel in Makati City. Mario J. Mallari

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