Escudero drops 2010 poll plans

SENATOR FRANCIS Joseph "Chiz" G. Escudero yesterday formally abandoned his ambition for the 2010 elections, in an apparent move to support the candidacy of Senator Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" C. Aquino III of the Liberal Party (LP).

"Probably this is not the right time for me to run as president," the 40-year-old lawmaker said yesterday at Club Filipino in Greenhills, San Juan City.

"I’ve always said that for me it’s the presidency but not at all cost: Not at the cost of losing my soul, not at the cost of losing myself, not at the cost of being eaten up by the system and the process. And certainly not at the cost of not being able to do the things that I want and set out to do," said Mr. Escudero, whose term is until 2013.

Mr. Escudero quit the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) last Oct. 28, leaving his long presumptive running mate Senator Loren B. Legarda without a partner. Ms. Legarda has been chosen as running mate by Senator Manuel B. Villar, Jr. of the Nacionalista Party (NP).

After he left the NPC, Mr. Escudero, whose youth support has been evident, admitted that he met with Mr. Aquino, LP standard-bearer, and that the decision to drop his bid was due to their "friendship."

He told reporters: "I cannot deny the fact that I also weighed my friendship with Noynoy."

New LP recruits

Meanwhile, former senator Ralph G. Recto and his wife Batangas Governor Vilma T. Santos-Recto and several others formally joined the LP yesterday, banking on Mr. Aquino’s vow to restore good governance. Their oath taking was held at the Batangas provincial capitol. They were joined by around 300 local leaders of the province.

The couple bolted the administration’s Lakas-Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino-Christian Muslim Democrats last Nov. 16 to support the LP ticket of Mr. Aquino and Senator Manuel A. Roxas II. Mr. Recto will run as senator while Ms. Santos-Recto will seek reelection.

Valenzuela Councilor Shalani S. R. Soledad, the girlfriend of Mr. Aquino, was also sworn in as one of the new LP member yesterday at the LP headquarters in Cubao, Quezon City. She will also seek reelection.

Actor/television host Richard F. Gomez, formerly of the NPC who ran but lost in the 2007 senatorial elections, was also sworn is as LP member. He will run for congressman in the fourth district of Leyte, the hometown of his wife Lucy Torres.

In a related development, militant congressmen who have expressed their intent to forge an alliance with the NP have decided to instead run as independent senatorial candidates in protest over the Villar party’s alliance with the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (KBL) of the Marcoses.

Party-list Reps. Saturnino C. Ocampo (Bayan Muna) and Liza L. Maza (Gabriela) yesterday said the NP-KBL alliance made their support for Mr. Villar an "impossibility." -- B. U. Allauigan