By Fe Zamora (Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines—Family feuds may be a hallmark of Philippine politics, but according to administration standard-bearer Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro, his own feud with the family of his uncle, industrialist and Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) founder Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco, should have no place in the current presidential race.
“We are talking about the country, not one family, not the hurt feelings of one person ... And for the good of the people, I’d go for the Filipino people than the hurt feelings of a family,” Teodoro Friday told reporters on the sidelines of the Chamber of Thrift Banks’ national convention at the Dusit Thani hotel in Makati City.
Teodoro was reacting to a statement made by his first cousin Lisa Cojuangco Cruz, a daughter of Danding’s, that the family was “hurt” when Teodoro abandoned the NPC and joined the administration without a formal goodbye.
“It does not have any effect on the life of Juan de la Cruz, or in my platform of government. [It should not be an issue in a] presidential election, and I’m not going down to that level,” he added.
‘Anybody but Gibo’
Teodoro, a former defense secretary and also a former representative of Tarlac, is the only son of Mercedes Cojuangco-Teodoro, a sister of Danding’s.
Last month, Danding’s wife Gretchen said she would go for “anybody but Gibo” in the presidential election.
And as if to show the extent of the family’s hurt feelings, the other day Lisa Cruz joined the campaign of Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, the Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer and her second cousin.
The Aquinos and the Cojuangcos themselves have not exactly been on the best of terms. (See What Went Before on this page.)
But Noynoy Aquino is not ruling out a loose alliance with the NPC, especially at the local level.
And his youngest sister Kris, the celebrity talk show host, said on Thursday that she would try to get Danding Cojuangco in her brother’s camp.
NPC-LP candidates
Speaking Friday with reporters, Aquino said the LP and NPC had common candidates in more areas than the NPC had with the Nacionalista Party (NP), whose standard-bearer is Sen. Manuel Villar.
Most of the NPC’s rivals at the local level are from the NP or the ruling Lakas-Kampi-CMD, Aquino observed.
Even his running mate, Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas, said an alliance between the LP and NPC would be more realistic than an NPC-NP tieup.
“We don’t see any sincerity in the supposed coalition between the NP and NPC because they have competing candidates at the local level,” Roxas said, citing Dumaguete City, Davao del Sur and South Cotabato as examples.
A step forward
If Teodoro has lost the support of the Cojuangcos, he gained a backer in Las Piñas Rep. Cynthia Villar, the wife of the NP standard-bearer.
Cynthia Villar said in a TV interview that she would support Teodoro in the presidential race if her husband were not himself a candidate.
“I just take everything as positives,” Teodoro said in reaction to Cynthia Villar’s statement. “Any positive statement in a highly charged political atmosphere is a step forward for something that we need.”
Teodoro said he would work to unite the country if he wins the presidency in May.
“All these beautiful programs will fly out of the window if we do not have some form of political accord and harmony. That is the most important factor. Our country has not been able to sustain anything [because of] the lack of principled political harmony,” he said.Campaigning separately
Teodoro, a consistent fourth-placer in surveys on presidential preferences since January, said he remained hopeful that he would win with the help of a campaign strategy and the Lakas-Kampi-CMD machinery.
He dismissed suggestions that his campaign strategy—which apparently consists of himself, his running mate Edu Manzano, and their senatorial candidates campaigning separately instead of as a team—was ineffective.
“The area is so big, and logistically, it’s really difficult to move as one. So the campaign was really designed in such a way that we campaign separately,” he said in Filipino.
Teodoro said criticisms were expected.
“If you move together very slowly, they will also say that you’re not covering the [whole] Philippines. So [the strategy] was designed that way,” he said, adding:
“I will not stop until I’m No. 1.”
No. 2
A survey conducted by Campaigns & Image with the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting showed Teodoro ranking second to front-runner Villar.
According to a statement issued by Teodoro’s spokesperson Mike Toledo, the survey results showed Villar with a rating of 31 percent; Teodoro, 24 percent; Aquino, 20 percent; and Joseph Estrada of the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino, 13 percent. With a report from Gil C. Cabacungan Jr.
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