Jinggoy open to vice president bid if Erap quits

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines – If former President Joseph Estrada would drop his plan to seek the presidency again in 2010, then his son Jinggoy would consider Sen. Manuel Villar’s offer to be his running mate in the May 2010 elections.

Villar was quoted in a television interview as saying that he was eyeing Sen. Jinggoy Estrada as a possible running mate in next year’s polls.

Villar, in the same television interview, said he is also considering Sen. Pia Cayetano and Vice President Noli de Castro, who has yet to announce his presidential candidacy, as possible vice presidential candidate.

“I am giving myself until November to choose my running mate,” the former Senate president said.

But former president Estrada refused to comment on the reports of a possible Villar-Jinggoy tandem, saying he will leave it to his son to weigh his options for 2010.

Former senator Ernesto Maceda said reports of Villar showing interest in Jinggoy as a running mate is a “backdoor approach” to get the support of the former president.

“It’s another indication that they still consider President Estrada as a strong candidate and a strong leader and they have to try somehow to get his support,” he said.

Jinggoy said he is “overwhelmed and flattered” with the statement of Villar, but he is still undecided. 

“If he (Erap) will not run, I might consider the offer,” he said.

The Estradas were accompanied by Maceda and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile in a forum organized by the Political Science Society of the University of St. La Salle here before proceeding to La Carlota City and La Castellana and Moises Padilla towns in southern Negros Occidental as part of the former president’s “Lakbay Pasasalamat” caravan.

The former president said he is still trying his best to unify the opposition but even if it remains divided, “the one who will win the presidency will be from the opposition and not from the administration.”

‘Noynoy is a good man’

Estrada also emphasized that he believes that Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino is a good man but he has reservations about the people around him.

“What I only doubt are the people around him who were the ones who conspired to illegally oust me from office,” he said.

Jinggoy, on the other hand, said that while Aquino, whom he described as a hardworking senator, is qualified to run as president, his capability to replicate what his late mother, former president Corazon Aquino, has done for the country remains to be seen.

Despite Aquino having accepted the clamor to run in 2010 and Sen. Manuel Roxas’ decision to step aside “for the sake of unity in the party,” Maceda expressed doubt that the Liberal Party is indeed “united.”

“Maybe after a few weeks, it is going to be Franklin Drilon,” he said.

“Nothing seems to be final in the LP ranks. Even the candidacy of Mar Roxas is still very much in the air as vice president,” he said.

“When you put politicians like Drilon, Butch Abad, Sen. Biazon and company on one side and you put the likes of Dinky Soliman, the Black and White Movement and the civil society on the other side, it will take time before they can work together,” the former senate president said.

“With these developments, the public will have to brace for more drama,” he added.