Senate Majority Leader Loren Legarda and Sen. Noli "Kabayan" de Castro are the highest ranked contenders for the No. 2 post according to surveys by public opinion agencies.
De Castro is reported to be the top choice of President Arroyo as her running mate in 2004, while Legarda is being paired with former Sen. Raul Roco or whoever among Senators Edgardo Angara, Panfilo Lacson and Aquilino Pimentel Jr. would be chosen by the mainstream opposition as standard bearer.
It is already a given that Legarda would have no place in the administration ticket should she aspire for a higher post.
"I am not going to run as an independent," Legarda stressed, while not discounting the possibility that she might eventually seek reelection.
Should Legarda and De Castro both aspire for the vice presidency, the latter would be in a more ideal situation. As he is not a reelectionist in 2004, De Castro can always return to the Senate should he lose, and serve his term up to 2007.
Legarda has no place to go should she lose as her term expires in 2004.
The Senate has traditionally been the springboard of vice presidents. Joseph Estrada was a senator from 1987 to 1992 before he was elected vice president in 1992, Mrs. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was senator from 1992 to 1998 before her election as vice president.
In 1998, most of the vice presidential candidates were senators: Angara, Arroyo, Francisco Tatad, and Sergio Osmeña III.
Sen. Manny Villar said that Legarda enjoyed an earlier lead over De Castro because De Castro used to be mentioned as a presidential candidate.
"But once he is considered for the vice presidency, he is certain to give Loren a tough fight," he said, while expressing the belief that De Castro would have an edge.
Sen. John Osmeña, meanwhile, has another idea on who would win in a face-off between Legarda and De Castro.
When asked on who he believed would win, Osmeña riposted: Eh sino pa, di ang mga Lopez (Who else but the Lopezes)!"