Friday, 08 January 2010 20:34By Jefferson Antiporda Reporter
Original Story: http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/component/content/article/42-rokstories/9308-im-my-own-man-gibo
The presidential candidate of the administration party Lakas-Kampi Christian Muslim Democrats (CMD) on Friday insisted that he was his own man.
Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro, a former Defense secretary, told students of the private Technological University of the Philippines in Manila during a forum on campus that he was nobody’s puppet.
“I am no one else’s facsimile. I make my own decisions and no one can dictate upon me,” he said.
Teodoro vowed before the mostly engineering students to push for what is good for the people if he wins the presidential elections in May this year. The 2010 balloting will pick President Gloria Arroyo’s successor.
Teodoro said that he would not have bothered to run for president if he only wanted somebody to make a puppet out of him.
On second thought, he quipped that being a puppet is certainly much easier role than being a president.
Teodoro said that becoming president of the country carries with it major responsibilities and tasks that require the country’s leader to exercise independent judgment and not be beholden to anyone.
“No one can impose upon me when I am elected as the country’s next president,” he reiterated. Teodoro said that the Filipino traditional concept of “utang na loob [gratefulness for a favor received]” requires the recipient to give back to his benefactor.
Return to glory days
Earlier, Rep. Neptali Gonzales 2nd of Mandaluyong City (Metro Manila), also a senior member of the Lakas-Kampi, said during the university forum that he sees a return of the country to its glory days under a competent and an intellectual president.
“If the presidential campaign will be decided by sheer leadership ability and intellect alone, Gibo would be a sure winner in the elections,” Gonzales added.
Teodoro, the congressman said, has the “makings of the next Manuel L. Quezon.” Quezon was a former Philippine president.
Choosing the country’s next president is an extremely vital exercise, Gonzales added.
He appealed to Filipinos to vote into office a candidate “not [based] on popularity but on his overall capacity to lead and reform society and government.”
Original Story: http://www.manilatimes.net/index.php/component/content/article/42-rokstories/9308-im-my-own-man-gibo
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