NEWSFLASH

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BOBBY BARBERS RUNNING FOR VICE PRESIDENT

Makati City, Nov. 9, 1997 - Secretary Robert Barbers of the Department of Interior and Local Government has joined the race to be official candidate for Vice President of the Philippines in the May 1998 elections.

He is one of three such hopefuls in today's Lakas NUCD-UMDP consultation. The two others are the president's sister Senator Leticia Ramos Shahani and Justice Secretary Teopisto Guingona.

Various surveys have chosen Barbers as the most effective Cabinet secretary. He joined the vice presidential derby after receiving overwhelming endorsements from numerous groups in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

A group of mayors from the southern Philippines describes him as "the last hope of Mindanao for national leadership."

During his meeting with the mayors last Friday, the group said Barbers should run for vice president or Mindanao faces another bleak prospect of being shut out from the decision-making process of the national government.

"After months of listening to your collective voice urging me to run, I am convinced that I must do justice to your clamor. I am declaring my candidacy and will seek the nomination of the vice presidency under the Lakas-NUCD," he announced.