Updated November 22, 2009 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines - Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) vice presidential candidate Loren Legarda yesterday said she is ready to slug it out with Sen. Francis Escudero should he decide to run for the country’s second highest office.“I am ready to face him. I gave way to him when he asked to be president, and then he left me and abandoned the party without notice, and now he is running against me. I am ready for that,” Legarda said.
Although she admits to feeling betrayed, Legarda said she has forgiven Escudero – who is her godson – and stressed she does not want to focus her campaign on candidates but on her advocacies.
“In my life, I’ve been betrayed and hurt. But sufferings give you perseverance and perseverance gives you wisdom and compassion, these mold me to understand people more,” she said in an interview.
Legarda was earlier positioned to run for president under the NPC until Escudero sounded off that he also wanted to run for president. This prompted Legarda to slide down to the vice presidency.
The NPC lost a standard bearer when Escudero suddenly left the party a few days after his 40th birthday last Oct. 10, by which time Legarda had already declared her decision to run for vice president.
“He asked for it and he said he was resigning from the Senate once he seeks the presidential bid,” said Legarda, wondering what has come into Escudero’s mind.
Escudero remains undecided over his political moves after denouncing the NPC and wanting to have a more independent stance on political issues.
Legarda said she is trying to understand where Escudero is coming from, since she has been in politics for quite some time.
“I have been in the politics for so long…I’ve given way, I said that if you want (the presidency) that bad, I said it’s okay, it’s yours. If he runs (for vice president), I am ready to face him,” she said.
Escudero, meantime, sought “understanding” from those who might not be happy with his decision regarding his political plans, which he said he would announce next week.
But he stressed that he had not made a final decision yet and that not running at all remained an option.
“I have not declared any position where I could slide down from. Since I left NPC I have said that I would be open to all options. I am asking for understanding maybe from those who might agree or disagree, given the situation in the country that has changed,” Escudero said over radio station dwIZ.
Escudero confirmed that Aquino did visit him in his house in Quezon City but denied he was offered to become LP’s campaign manager.
He said he and Aquino were good and long time friends, having served at the House of Representatives almost at the same time.
In case he runs for vice president, Escudero will be pitted against Legarda, Makati City Mayor Jejomar Binay of the United Opposition, the administration’s Edu Manzano and Sen. Manuel Roxas II of the Liberal Party, who himself withdrew from the presidential race to give way to Aquino.
Escudero also admitted he had been talking with former Sen. Sergio Osmeña III so they could work together again in the campaign.
Osmeña said he would no longer run under LP because former National Economic and Development Authority director general and Sen. Ralph Recto, who was from the administration, was accepted into the party that was supposed to espouse new politics under Aquino.
Osmeña said he had to part ways with Escudero because of close family ties with the Aquinos and deep debt of gratitude to Aquino’s mother, former President Corazon Aquino.
He also said he was of the belief that Aquino would make a good president because of his traits and values.
In an interview also over dwIZ, Osmeña said Escudero’s ratings were good in the vice presidential race, second to Roxas, the current frontrunner.
“Love is sweeter the second time around,” Osmeña said. –With Aurea Calica
Source: http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=525644&publicationSubCategoryId=63
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