Lacson logical opposition candidate for 2004 — Zamora

Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson is the only logical opposition presidential standard-bearer in the May 2004 elections, San Juan Rep. Ronaldo Zamora said yesterday.

"He’s the only one, there’s no doubt about it. I don’t think anyone else is showing in the horizon," Zamora told reporters.

Zamora, former executive secretary of ousted President Joseph Estrada, was chosen by Lacson to be his campaign manager. Zamora’s brother Manuel, a banker, is one of the opposition senator’s financiers and fund-raisers.

In Iloilo City, Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino secretary general and Makati Rep. Agapito Aquino said LDP members in the House of Representatives are set to endorse Lacson as their chosen presidential candidate.

Aquino told a press conference the LDP contingent in the House is set to issue a manifesto expressing full support for Lacson’s presidential bid.

"A great majority of the LDP in the House of Representatives and (at) the local level believe that Senator Lacson is the most qualified opposition candidate in terms of vision, track record and experience," Aquino said.

Aquino, House Minority Leader Carlos Padilla and Deputy Minority Leader Rolex Suplico accompanied Lacson on a two-day consultation with opposition leaders and Lacson supporters in Iloilo.

Zamora said he thinks Lacson is the only logical opposition standard-bearer "because so far, he’s the only declared presidential aspirant in the ranks of the political opposition."

"With the elections only a few months away, it’s too late for any other presidential wannabe to be joining the race at this point, unless he is running to lose," Zamora said.

He said a serious candidate’s political machinery should be fully organized by now.

"Ours is by and large already in place," he added.

Asked about the possibility of popular movie actor Fernando Poe Jr. joining the nomination for the opposition presidential standard-bearer, Zamora shot back: "His name is being floated, but where is he?"

"FPJ is our friend, but it’s too late in the day for him to join the contest and mount a serious campaign," he said.

Poe is being asked to join the nomination process by Senators Edgardo Angara and Vicente Sotto III. Angara is president of the LDP, the largest opposition party, to which Sotto and Lacson belong.

Zamora is a member of the Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP).

Most of Zamora’s colleagues in the House who belong to Angara’s LDP also support Lacson’s presidential bid.

Lacson does not deny the fact that he sometimes gets sore at his party-mates, whom he said obviously have a "different preference."

"But I hope to sit down with them soon to thresh things out," he told reporters over the weekend.

Zamora said his candidate’s LDP colleagues and Estrada, their former boss, would eventually have no choice but to support Lacson.

"We can’t expect them to support GMA or Raul Roco," he said.

Padilla, one of the likely senatorial candidates of the united opposition, said Angara is rooting for possible presidential bets who do not belong to the LDP.

He also said Angara’s goal is for the decision as to who will finally bear the LDP standard in the presidential derby to reflect the sentiment of the party’s members.

"We will select our candidate based on the general consensus of the party," Padilla said. "The decision should emanate from our members and not on the say-so of a few party officials and, as far as the LDP is concerned, (Lacson) is our only candidate."

Lacson said the LDP is expected to meet within the next few days to discuss and resolve contentious issues regarding the party’s candidate selection process.

"I’m optimistic that we will be able to iron things out in the next few days," he said.