GIBO BARES AGENDA ON START OF CAMPAIGN /
GIBO CAN SUCCEED SANS GMA
MANILA,
FEBRUARY 11, 2010
(MANILA BULLETIN) Lakas-Kampi CMD presidential candidate Gilberto
“Gibo” Teodoro Jr. said Tuesday that agricultural development would be his major
priority to ensure the country’s food security and spur its economic
development, even as he remained confident in the ruling party’s capacity to
boost his candidacy, on the start of the campaign for the May 10 presidential
elections.
At the first presidential debate organized by the Philippine Daily Inquirer at the University of the Philippines’ Diliman campus, Teodoro said he would launch a program to modernize agriculture to boost food security. Both are vital links in the national effort to push the country’s economic development, he said.
Teodoro also identified other priority areas in quick succession, among them modernizing the ship-building industry and the tourism sector because of their vast potential to bring into the country “massive amounts of dollars.”
Teodoro said he favored increased spending for the police and military particularly in the recruitment of more men and acquisition of new equipment both of which he said are “keys to lasting peace and order.”
Asked by a representative of pro-indigenous group about the most secluded place he has visited, Teodoro identified an area in Abra called Salapadan, home of the indigenous Tinguian.
The 1989 Bar topnotcher, the youths’ runaway choice for president in most of the nation’s college campuses, waxed eloquence in the debate and even managed to spice it up with witty quips and repartee.
When asked to rank her mother-in-law, President Arroyo, and his uncle and business tycoon Danding Cojuangco, Teodoro ranked his mother-in-law as number one, saying that both Arroyo and Cojuangco were equal.
Source: Manila Bulletin Posted: 2/10/2010
GIBO GETS IGLESIA 'SUPPORT
(MANILA TIMES) BY ANGELO S. SAMONTE Reporter - Lakas candidate to hold talks with Davao City pastor.
The presidential candidate of the ruling party in the May 2010 elections, former Defense chief Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro, has obtained backing from the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC), the country’s biggest and reputedly most politically influential religious group, according to reports.
Despite the reports, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita on Wednesday said that Malacañang was not about to bank on them this early.
“I hope we get it [support]. INC is very supportive of the Arroyo administration,” Ermita added.
The reports said that President Gloria Arroyo on Tuesday night thanked the Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ) for its support, which critics took to mean as backing for Teodoro, the standard-bearer of the administration coalition Lakas-Kampi Christian Muslim Democrats (CMD).
Ermita said that any candidate must value the support of any sector.
In elections, he added, one needs the backing of the INC and other big groups and it is significant for the ruling party to get the support of these groups.
“A candidate has to reach out to the electorate. I hope Gibo will do just that,” Ermita said.
When asked why the President was absent during the Lakas-Kampi CMD kickoff rally in Antipolo City, the executive secretary reiterated that Teodoro has the “capability to lead the party to victory.”
According to Ermita, another reason behind Mrs. Arroyo’s absence at the Antipolo City launch was that the President was checking on the progress of her pet projects, notably the so-called five super regions.
He said that he was “not highlighting the obvious . . . Gibo and his team can stand on their own and carry on their campaign by themselves.”
Apparently, Team Gibo can, setting a meeting on its own with one of the biggest religious groups in southern Mindanao and thousands of students there during the third day, Thursday, of the presidential campaign.
The administration party’s candidates were scheduled to visit the community of Pastor Apollo Quiboloy in Davao City around 11 a.m. today. Quiboloy, the founder of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ that is based in the city, is a spiritual adviser of the President.
Dialogue with pastor From Quiboloy’s community, Teodoro will proceed to the University of Mindanao at 3 p.m. to meet with the students to deliver them his platform and field questions from them.
He and Quiboloy will hold a dialogue in the evening.
Team Gibo will drop by Kidapawan City in Bukidnon province on February 12 and will be back in Manila on Saturday to grace the Fatima University sports festival at Rizal Memorial and then go to Mall of Asia in the afternoon.
In explaining Mrs. Arroyo’s absence at the Antipolo City kickoff, Ermita said that the accomplishments of the Arroyo administration are a great help to the success of Teodoro’s campaign for the presidency, his running mate Edu Manzano and the senatorial candidates of Lakas-Kampi CMD.
He added that Teodoro had said that he would continue the projects of the Arroyo administration, among them the P8.04-billion Urban Luzon Beltway, the P6-billion Batangas Port project, the P20.9-billion Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway project, the P1.57-billion Tarlac-Nueva Ecija-Aurora-Dingalan road project and the P2.3-billion Marikina-Infanta road project.
These and other evident accomplishments of the Arroyo administration failed to impress another presidential candidate, Sen. Manuel “Manny” Villar of the Nacionalista Party (NP).
When asked also on Wednesday during a dialogue with the Makati Business Club (MBC) about his assessment of the economic performance of the President, Villar said that he was not impressed with it.
Villar unimpressed He explained that Mrs. Arroyo has had nine years in Malacañang and should have performed better.
Rather vaguely, Villar said, “In assessing her performance, we should compare it with those [of other heads of state] in other countries.” He did not elaborate.
But according to the NP standard-bearer, he would not hesitate to continue the good projects of the President, such as the roll-on, roll-off.
Villar dismissed rumors that he is being supported by Mrs. Arroyo, that he had met with the President’s husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, at the house of former Secretary Michael Defensor and that he had even slept at the house of the Ampatuans, prime suspects in the Maguindanao mass murder.
He told the MBC, the sponsor of the series Presidential Business Forum, “Someone warned me that it would be like Barack Obama addressing the Ku Kux Klan.”
Villar described the biggest club as the “biggest concentration of wealth, power, intelligence and years of business experience” in all forums he had attended.
He said that he had grown tired of hearing “the same old refrain” that the Philippines used to be second to Japan. “Let us stop lamenting the past and move on! Let us move forward!”
On his first 100 days, according to the NP presidential bet, he would hold a televised bidding for big infrastructure contracts “to send the message that we mean business” in minimizing graft.
Unlike Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino 3rd, another rival in the 2010 polls, Villar said that he could not promise businessmen that he would not impose new taxes as he expected the next president to inherit an empty treasure chest.
Former Sen. Vicente Paterno, one of the MBC panelists, said that Villar faced up to the questions at the forum “very well.”
“He must have had excellent briefing,” he added.
Villar’s running mate, Sen. Loren Legarda, also praised and at the same time defended the NP standard-bearer.
Smear campaign Anybody who wages a smear campaign against Villar will have to contend with her, she said also on Wednesday on what she perceived to be black propaganda against him.
“If you had gotten used to hiding behind the skirts of your mother or you wife, you should now start working on your own. Raise the level of politics, don’t spread rumors don’t cuss in Ayala,” she said, referring to Ayala Avenue in Makati City (Metro Manila) and alluding to Noynoy Aquino, the standard-bearer of the Liberal Party (LP).
Legarda questioned why their political opponents should be talking about botox and hair dye as issues against Villar.
Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, NP secretary general, echoed her call.
He also took a dig at Noynoy for claiming that Villar was the “secret candidate” of Mrs. Arroyo.
“The Senate under Sen. Villar was investigating the Arroyo administration. The new Senate, with members of the LP in the majority, investigated only Sen. Villar,” Cayetano said.
NP senatorial candidate Adel Tamano also hit Aquino’s claim that Villar was not a real member of the opposition.
Tamano, the official spokesman of the Genuine Opposition senatorial slate in 2007, pointed out that Aquino was a teammate of Villar in the Genuine Opposition ticket.
‘Not opposition’ “Why is Noynoy making this claim now? Why didn’t he complain in 2007 when we included both of them in the Genuine Opposition senatorial ticket? Why didn’t he say then that Manny was not opposition?” he asked
Tamano said that this “black propaganda” belied LP claims that it wanted a clean campaign without mudslinging. “Their true colors are showing!”
He said that the Liberal Party is resorting to black propaganda because of the falling ratings of Aquino.
The LP standard-bearer said that Villar was only “not opposition” but also incompetent.
His spokesman, lawyer Edwin Lacierda, also on Wednesday said the Nacionalista Party bet should be the last person to speak on the issue of competence and service to the country.
Villar’s “Senate record clearly shows that of all the senators, he has the worst attendance record,” Lacierda added.
Incompetent candidate “What kind of competence does Villar boast about when he was only present in 15 Senate sessions? And of those sessions, he was late 12 times, while his colleagues burned the midnight oil over important matters of state?” he said in a statement.
The Aquino camp said that Villar’s “burning and all-consuming ambition” to become the successor to Mrs. Arroyo has led the NP candidate to abandon his duties as senator.
Also on Wednesday, former President Joseph “Erap” Estrada kicked off his first provincial campaign in Pangasinan, the home province of his best friend, the late actor Fernando Poe Jr. or FPJ.
FPJ was the opposition’s losing presidential candidate in the 2004 elections.
Estrada, who is seeking the presidency for the second time, was the guest of honor at the Urdaneta City University where he spoke to students of his platforms and plans to bring back the power to the masses and continue his pro-poor programs, which were stalled when he was removed from Malacañang.
He was joined by his vice presidential candidate, Mayor Jejomar Binay of Makati City (Metro Manila).
Later in the day, the Estrada group held a motorcade around the province where they were joined by their senatorial aspirants led by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Estrada’s son and Sen. Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada, Jose de Venecia 3rd and former Sen. Francisco Tatad.
GIBO CAN SUCCEED WITHOUT GMA
(STAR) By Paolo Romero - Lakas-Kampi-CMD standard-bearer Gilbert
Teodoro Jr. can successfully run his electoral campaign without help from
President Arroyo, Malacañang said yesterday.
Speaking to reporters in Malolos, Bulacan, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said Mrs. Arroyo has given Teodoro free rein in his campaign when she turned over the party’s chairmanship to him last year.
“That’s the President’s way of telling the people the one that we chose is deserving of the people’s support because he (Teodoro) has the capacity to lead,” Ermita said.
He said the only major Lakas-Kampi-CMD activity that Mrs. Arroyo attended in the last several months was the party national convention where Teodoro and his running mate Edu Manzano were proclaimed.
“So moving forward, the next step of the President as the chairman of the party was to give way to the chosen candidate to be the chair of the party so that he can make his own plans and his own groups, not to be dictated on by the previous chairman or especially the President,” he said,
Ermita said Teodoro’s qualifications to lead Lakas-Kampi-CMD are “very obvious” to the public.
“We can show that Gibo (Teodoro’s nickname) together with his team can stand on his feet as a leader and I can tell you all, run the campaign successfully,” he said.
Teodoro vows reforms
Teodoro vowed reforms in government yesterday if he is elected president.
Speaking before 30,000 supporters at the Ynares stadium in Rizal, Teodoro said the highest office in the land calls for the highest standards of selection - not genetics, wealth or popularity.
“Just the good old-fashioned virtues for which we selected our presidents in the past and made them heroes in our national history,” he said.
Teodoro said his “Galing at Talino” program will wrest the presidency from the survey frontrunners.
“Talent, intelligence, preparation, real achievements, a solid platform, a vision for our country, and the character to lead us in that direction” will decide who will be the country’s next president, he added.
Teodoro vowed to address problems in education and health care, as well as expand the infrastructure network, improve peace and order and national stability, and initiate anti-poverty programs to generate jobs and income for the poor.
On the other hand, Manzano said they need not pledge to the people that they will not steal from the national coffers.
“It is part of our party’s principles,” he said. “Let us help one another to enable our country to move forward.”
Antipolo Mayor Nilo Leybe assured “Team Gibo” that they have nothing to fear in Antipolo.
“In fact they will win decisively here,” he said.
“The city’s local officials belonging to Lakas-Kampi-CMD will do their part to convince our 315,651 voters to vote for Secretary Teodoro’s electoral cause.”
Rizal Gov. Casimiro Ynares Jr. vowed to mobilize his resources to ensure a Teodoro victory in his province.
“All of our party officials in 12 towns and one city will campaign hard to ensure Gibo’s victory,” he said.
Lakas-Kampi-CMD’s six-man senatorial ticket is comprised of Senators Ramon Revilla Jr. and Lito Lapid, and Silvestre Bello, Ramon Guico, Rey Langit and Raul Lambino.
Present in Tuesday’s campaign rally were Secretary Ermita, former Justice secretary Raul Gonzalez, Buluan, Maguindanao Vice-Mayor Esmael Mangadadatu, Bataan Gov. Enriquez Garcia, Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno, Lakas-Kampi-CMD president Rene Miguel Dominguez, Zambales Gov. Victor Magsaysay and Governor Ynares.
Manzano backs MILF peace talks
Manzano backed yesterday the resumption of peace talks with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
“The human costs of the age-old armed conflict in Mindanao are insufferable,” he said.
“There is no military solution to the fighting in Mindanao. Lasting peace in that part of our country can only be achieved politically, through perseverance in working out a negotiated settlement.”
Manzano called for “a principled and peaceful end to the strife,” with neither blame nor surrender.
“Every time we have full-scale hostilities in Mindanao, hundreds of human lives are lost, and anywhere from 500,000 to 600,000 people, mostly women and children, are forced to abandon their homes, farms and jobs,” he said.
Manzano said the humanitarian crisis produced by the flare- up in Mindanao has become totally unbearable.
“Recurring hostilities erode whatever gains various sectors have achieved to transcend cultural barriers in favor of a society that thrives on unity and equality in diversity,” he said.
Frequent skirmishes in Mindanao have revived unwanted ethnic and religious biases between Muslims and Christians, he added.
“A negotiated settlement of an armed conflict is always difficult, but not always impossible,” he said.
GMA thanks INC
President Arroyo thanked yesterday the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) for continuing to support her administration.
Speaking to students and faculty members of the INC-run New Era University in Quezon City, Mrs. Arroyo said the INC has backed her throughout her political career that began when she ran for senator in 1995.
“Thank you for your help that you always carried me and you also carried (Vice President) Noli (de Castro) when he first ran in 2001 as senator,” she said in Filipino.
“And in 2004, you supported our tandem.”
Mrs. Arroyo said she could not forget the joy she felt when she learned she was number one in the sample ballot of the INC in 1995.
“Because you helped me become vice president, I became president in 2001 at the receiving end of the political crisis and inherited a bankrupt treasury,” she said.
Ermita said it would not come as a surprise if the administration would ask the INC to support Teodoro’s run for the presidency.
“We should always welcome the support of any group or sector,especially during election,” he said.
“If indeed they believe in the administration’s capacity to move forward, definitely it is very significant that we win the support of such a group like INC for the candidacy of the administration,” he said.
“It would be a correct guess that a candidate such as former secretary Teodoro would definitely reach out to the INC.”
Mrs. Arroyo was at New Era University with De Castro to give a talk on her administration’s accomplishments on the Urban Luzon Beltway, one of five “super regions” created by Executive Order 561 covering CALABARZON, Marinduque and Mindoro provinces, Metro Manila, and Central Luzon.- With Jaime Laude
RELATED NEWS FROM MALACANANG
Gibo is his own man, says PGMA
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo wants administration party standard bearer Gilberto Teodoro Jr. to be “his own man” when he campaigns for his presidential bid in the May 10 elections.
In a press briefing following today’s cabinet meeting at Barangay Talipapa in Quezon City, Press Secretary Crispulo Icban Jr. said the President “deliberately decided that Gibo stands on his own.”
Icban quoted the President as saying that Teodoro can stand on his own.
“Gibo is campaigning on his own capabilities and he hardly mentions the President in his campaign sorties,” he said. “Let’s respect that.”
Icban said the former Defense Secretary could carry the banner of Lakas-Kampi-CMD well in the campaign period that started today.
The President, he said, is very busy in her tour of the super regions, particularly in her legacy communications campaign around the country.
Today, the President inspected the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX)-C5-South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) link in barangay Talipapa, Quezon City where she also held a cabinet meeting that tackled the developments in the 14 road projects in the Urban Luzon Beltway.
These projects are aimed at spurring economic development in the area and transforming it into a competitive logistics and services hub in the Asia-Pacific region.