Villar won't preempt Noli's plans

Source: abs-cbnnews.com

MANILA - Senator and presidential aspirant Manuel Villar on Thursday said he is open to inviting Vice-President Noli de Castro to be his running mate in the 2010 elections, but stressed that he will not preempt de Castro's plans.

"Kabayan [de Castro] and I have not talked...To be fair with him, I don't know if he wants to run for vice-president or if he wants to return to broadcasting or if he wants to run for president. I expect to talk to him in the coming days..Ayaw kong pangunahan kung ano ang kanyang magiging plano," Villar said in an interview with ANC's Dateline.

He said that de Castro had previously indicated that he might run for president or return to the private sector.

Earlier reports said Villar has been trying to woo de Castro to become his running mate in the 2010 elections. De Castro earlier turned down the invitation of the Lakas-Kampi Christian Muslim Democrats to become the party's standard bearer for the 2010 polls.

Villar, meanwhile, welcomed the Lakas-Kampi-CMD's decision to field Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro as the party's standard-bearer for next year's election.

He refused to say, however, if he preferred to take on Teodoro or Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chairman Bayani Fernando in the elections next year. "They're both good but they have to catch up in popularity [surveys]," he said.

He also downplayed reports that he had lost the lead in the presidential race to Sen. Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, as shown in the latest popularity survey.

The recent Social Weather Stations survey showed that one out of every two voters in vote-rich areas of Luzon would have chosen Noynoy if presidential elections were held in early September 2009. Aquino was preferred by 50% of 1,200 respondents from a pre-selected list of five names that also included erstwhile survey leaders Villar, former President Joseph Estrada, Senator Francis 'Chiz' Escudero, and Vice-President Noli de Castro.

Villar said Noynoy's popularity increased dramatically after the death of his mother, former president Corazon Aquino, last August 1.

"I have not gone down in the surveys, it's Noynoy that has gone up. It's hard to fight against the sentiment since everybody respects Cory Aquino and there was a lot of coverage," he said.

He said he is currently busy going around the country to allow people to know him better ahead of the 2010 elections.