Gibo not coming back to NPC

CEBU, Philippines - Defense Secretary and presidential aspirant Gilberto “Gibo” Teodoro said that he is not going back to the Nationalist People’s Coalition considering that he just took his oath as a member of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD.

Teodoro, who was in Cebu the other day, said that he is optimistic that he will be proclaimed the administration’s standard-bearer in the 2010 national and local elections.

Tourism secretary and NPC member Joseph “Ace” Durano said that they want Teodoro to return to NPC as they want him to be their presidential standard-bearer as well.

“We believe in him. He is very capable of leading this country,” said the Cebuano Cabinet secretary, who also admitted that he may consider running as senator under NPC.

Meanwhile, Sen. Miguel Zubiri, the merged party’s vice president for Mindanao branded the move to discredit the membership Teodoro to the party as “desperate”.

Teodoro was said to have joined the merged party while still a member of the NPC.

 “Teodoro has repeatedly declared that he will only run for president with Lakas-Kampi-CMD. He was sworn into the party by no less than the party president executive secretary Eduardo Ermita last July 24 and welcomed as an official party member by a majority. When Teodoro was appointed as Defense Secretary over two years ago he already left the NPC,” Zubiri clarified in a press statement furnished to The FREEMAN.

Zubiri said that Teodoro has the support of a big number of party members because of his leadership qualities.

Zubiri added that party officials and local leaders all over the country firmly believe that Teodoro is very much capable of continuing the economic and peace and order gains already achieved by the administration as the country’s next president.

 Zubiri maintained the administration coalition remains formidable as ever and that the entry of a candidate of “presidential material” to the party like Teodoro is a very welcoming development.

“He is already one of us, no longer an outsider and therefore is entitled to contend with the presidential nomination of the party,” the senator said.

Zubiri said Teodoro’s competence and integrity are being given weight by the party in the run-up to the selection process for its presidential nomination. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/BRP(THE FREEMAN)