Lakas’ vice presidential bet still hopes to get One Cebu’s support

Vice presidential candidate Edu Manzano yesterday said he still hopes to get the endorsement of Cebu province’s dominant party, One Cebu, even though the Garcia camp has ignored him in its endorsements.The actor made a campus visit yesterday in Cebu City with Lakas-Kampi-CMD presidential bet Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro.Both were mobbed by students at the Cebu Institute of Technology, especially girls who hugged and kissed the actor-politician then posed with him for photos.In an interview, Manzano said he took no offense in One Cebu’s lukewarm treatment when he showed up at the party’s convention last Saturday without an invitation.“I was just there to support Gibo. But I am hoping that we will come around and look into a dialog with the governor,” Manzano told reporters Wednesday night during the Vice Mayors League of the Philippines convention. Manzano was invited to the convention as a former national vice president of the league.Manzano, said he has talked with a number of mayors, and that Lapu-Lapu Mayor Arturo Radaza has pledged his support.Manzano was a former vice mayor of Makati City and chairman of the Optical Media Board which cracked down on DVD and CD counterfeiters.Meanwhile, Teodoro said he respects the decision of One Cebu party and that the national Lakas-Kampi-CMD would allow the party to decide its own endorsements. “I will have to campaign for my teammate. In fairness to him, he is a team player. We both support each other,” Teodoro said.In a radio dyLA interview, Teodoro said he “refused to dignify” rumors that the Garcias were in a “secret alliance” with presidential aspirant, Sen. Manuel Villar Jr.“Ang Garcia family ay marangal na tao (The Garcias are honorable people). They did not become the leaders that they are if they were not honorable,” he said.Kampi suddenly dropped its support for Bohol Gov. Erico Aumentado, who found his Lakas nomination withdrawn at the eleventh hour in filing his bid for Congress

.He was rejected for allegedly holding secret meetings with Villar but has appealed his case.Toedoro said Aumentado’s case would be looked into by the party leadership: “We will give him justice.”Teodoro and Manzano were warmly welcomed by the league during the second day of their convention yesterday. The league passed a resolution condemning the Nov. 23 massacre in in Maguindanao and called for swift justice for the victims.“Asking for restoration of the rule of law includes the dismantling of private armies in Maquindano,” said Mandaue City Vice Mayor Carlo Fortuna, the league’s conference director.The league also discussed the first use of automated elections in 2010. Commission on Elections director for information Jamez Jimenez conducted a mock poll during the conference to demonstrate the new election machines.In a press conference, Teodoro clarified his stand on the Reproductive Health Bill, calling himself “pro-choice.”He said while he did not support the bill there were some “good solutions” in it.“If that choice is made then, the government should be able to afford that supply (contraceptives),” said Teodoro, while emphasizing the need for responsible parenthood.He said he opposed the Reproductive Health Bill because some of its provisions legislated religious restrictions. But he also said the Catholic Church could not impose its stand on others who are not of their faith who may support the bill.In his campus visit in CIT, Toedoro stressed the importance of education and the need to update most schools’ curricula, particularly in languages.He said it was no longer enough to have a second language in English, but also a third language such as Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Spanish, French , Russian, or German, especially in tourist hubs such as the Visayas.Teodoro also said one of his platforms was to increase investments in technological advancement.“If we don’t, we will be merely catering to things which other people and other countries innovate, and we will never be leaders, we will always be followers and the Filipino, for how many hundreds of years, has been following, following, following. And I tell you that time is up that we follow. It is our time to lead, it is your time to tell the world ‘I am great, I can do something that you can not do’,” Teodoro told the students.

(Inquirer)